






■ — t -:^- , 




■^^'*^' ^ l,i'*-^:\ 





LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 






Shelf -.:.?.-^.^ 



UNITED STATES OE AMERICA. 



Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
in 2011 witii funding from 
Tine Library of Congress 



littp://www.arcliive.org/details/undercottoncanvaOOpott 



UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 



C'CA VEA T emptor:' ) 




to 



Copyright, 1892, 
By J. G. CUPPI.es COMPANY. 

AH rights reserved. 



PRINTFD AND BOUND BY THE 
Q. CUPPLES COMPANY, BOSTON, U. 



PREFACE. 

While Cooper, Marryatt, and others have let the 
world know all about sailing before the day of steam, 
I know of no writer having yet come to the front to 
give anywhere near the correct idea of how it is with 
us, the " wind-jammers," since the introduction into our 
profession of that powerful element. This work was 
accordingly begun with the sole viev\^ of contributing 
toward the supply of that deficiency. Taking the reader 
on board as a passenger, I kept him with us during the 
whole outward ti'ip, trying my best to entertain him 
w^ith " spun-yarns " when adventures were scarce. 

On arriving at Cape Town, feeling that it would be 
hardly fair to leave him on board alone to wait for me, 
I hit on the expedient of taking him on shore and put- 
ting in a few observations as a third chance of enter- 
taining him. Taking it for granted that he had 
" treked " with H. Rider Haggard and marched with 
Henry M. Stanley until he knew all about the interior, 
I hoped he might find something of interest while plod- 
ding about the beach with me. My plan was to show 
him something he had not seen before, if possible; but 
if the same, from a different point of view and through 
a new pair of glasses. How far I have been successful 
in this, is for him to decide. 

(iii) 



IV PREFACE. 

When I had got about ready to drag him on board 
for the homeward trip and was fearing the repetition of 
close confinement Avould make him seasick, I received 
orders to proceed to the coast of Chili. This being a 
very interesting part of the globe just then, it being the 
only part where war -was in operation, I foresaw a 
chance to give him a full ration of the voyage without 
confining him closely between bulwarks. I therefore 
only exacted a few Neptune-like calls from him during 
our long winter trip of two hundred and seventy de- 
grees of longtitude across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, 
spun a few yarns about land we didn't see, showed him 
the home of Selkirk, taught him how to steer without a 
rudder, and asked him to meet me in Chili, where we 
could ti'y to amuse ourselves by investigating the war. 

Though we arrived a few days too late for this, I yet 
led him quite a dance in this curious land, where War 
does not " smooth his wrinkled front " so quickly as in 
some others. I expected to be entirely a spectator, but 
was surprised to learn that Uncle Sam's " good inten- 
tions " — of neutrality — had paved the path to the 
Hades of Chilian displeasure, and found myself identi- 
fied with the only " enemy " who at that time dared 
show his head. This furnished unex2:>ected diversion 
for me, and gave me a chance to lead my passenger 
through the mazes of Chilian butchery. 

I then intended only to carry him into the Desert of 
Tarapaca to look up the patriotic (?) influences which 
had filled the revolutionary ranks, and, after he had seen 
me off, send him home overland ; but an unexpected dis- 
play of that curiosity on the high seas, — cotton canvas, 
— tempted me to exact another visit in the South 



PREFACE. V 

Pacific, and an unforeseen invasion of the Falkland 
Islands gave me another oppoi'tunity to invite him 
ashore. Indisposition prevented me from carrying him 
far in these isles, and I again dispatched him home, only 
stipulating that he come across the Gulf Stream and 
meet us as we approached. 

I have since met him on shore, to which I escaped 
with only my ship's papers, my dog and this MS., and 
told him a story of shipwreck and disaster which I hope 
will not be repeated in my experience. The adventures 
are all bondjide^ the spun-yarns authentic, and if some 
of the observations are somewhat candid, I can only 
hazard my usual question: Am I not right? 

Author. 



CONTENTS. 



PREFACE » . iii-v 

INTRODUCTION 1-4 

CHAPTER I.— The Ship-keeper— The "Onward" — 
The Crew and their Proprietors — The Runa- 
ways — The Capture — Piratical " Mashers " — 
The Home Coast or Slavery .... 5-15 

CHAPTER II. — Down the Sound — Wooden Nutmegs 
■ — At Sea — The Coal Barge — The Commander 
of the Railroad Switch — Farewell to the 
Flag — "Prince" 16-26 

CHAPTER III. — Sea-birds — " Evil Spirits " — 

Advantages of Navigation . . . . . 27-32 

CHAPTER I v. — Neptune's Handiwork — The Storm 
Ashore — The Storm at Sea — Shakespeare's 
Advantage — The " Curiosity " . . . . 33-45 

CHAPTER v. — The Sargasso Sea — The Work of 
Ocean Currents — My Officers — The Unmixed 
" Reb " — The " Letter of Marque " — " Skin- 
deep" Gloom — The Galley Thespian . . 46-54 

CHAPTER VI. — Celestial Mutiny — The Ungallant 
Fisherman — We Miss the Bellamy "Coach" 
— " Cat-and-Dog " Life ...... 55-62 

CHAPTER VII. — The " Soldier's Wind " — The 
Phantom Cruiser of "The Doldrums" — The 
Weird Shipmate — The Prophecy .... 63-68 

CHAPTER VIII. —The Doldrums — St. Paul's Rocks 69-72 

(vii) 



vni CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX, — Departure of the Haymaker — 
" La Grippe " — The Celestial Cruiser — Confed- 
erated Rivals — The Astronomical Bomb — 
Sharklets 73-81 

CHAPTER X.— The Record Broken — The Head- 
wind Ship — The Light-wind Ship — The 
" Onward " for Fair Winds and Tempests . 82-88 

CHAPTER XI. — The Calm-belt of Capricorn — All 
Hemp Canvas — Italian Pride — Nautical Super- 
stition — The Australian Bush — Convicts — 
Black-boys — Nocturnal Warblers — Unsus- 
pected Danger 89-100 

CHAPTER XII. — Our "Phantom" Cruising-ground 
— The White Squall — The Meteorological 
Landsman — "Mal de Mer" Defeated — Good 
Weather and Icebergs 101-109 

CHAPTER XIII. — Hospitality — Buenos Ayres — 
Bahia Blanca — Western Australia — The Pirati- 
cal Poet: or, The Poetical Pirate . . . 110-121 

CHAPTER XIV. —The Usurping Boom — Courage — 

Land Ho! 122-125 

CHAPTER XV.— Eastward Ho !— Survivors of Crew 

— Collecting and Fostering Tramps — Early 
Morning View — "Balloon Voyage" to Chili — 
Deplorable Curiosity 126-134 

CHAPTER XVI. — Cape Town — The Toll-gate — 
Civil-service Reform — Railroads — The Ameri- 
can Train-conductor — Advantages of Seclusion 

— Vested Rights 135-145 

CHAPTER XVII. — The Kloof— The Haunted 

House — The Southeast Wind .... 146-152 



CONTENTS. ix 

CHAPTER XVIII. — Hospitality — Amateur Poker — 
The Forlorn American Fowl — Local vs. Inter- 
national Rivalry 153-161 

CHAPTER XIX. — Death of our only Compatriot 

Fellow-voyager . 162-165 

CHAPTER XX. — Kerguelen, and Adjacent Isles 

— The "Onward" Mutinous — Late of "The 

R N Times"— John Bull's Island . . 166-175 

CHAPTER XXI.— In West Longitude — The Thread- 
bare Day — New Zealand — Easter Island's 
Trespass — Poaching — The Tortured NixMrod — 
The Wasted Cartridge 176-185 

CHAPTER XXII. — " Round about The Cauldron 
Go " — The Lost Rudder — Drag-steering — The 
Jury Rudder — The Immaculate Ship-master . 186-200 

CHAPTER XXIII. — Sympathetic Apprehension — 

Juan Fernandez Island — The Home of Crusoe 201-205 

CHAPTER XXIV. — Chili— Off for Pisagua — 
Valparaiso Harbor — The Wreck — Our New 
Navy — Attack on the "Baltimore's" Crew . 206-214 

CHAPTER XXV. — Neutral Uncle Sam Unpopu- 
lar — Projected Revenge — Balmaceda, The 
Ogre — The Chilian Times — A " Balmaceda 
Man" — The Reason Why 215-230 

CHAPTER XXVI. —The " Diez y Ocho " — Chilian 
Railroads — Santiago — The Heroes — Their 
Escort — The Cordillera 231-238 

CHAPTER XXVII. — The Last Campaign — Battle of 
CoNCON — Chilian Soldiers — Battle of Placilla 

— Butchery at Valparaiso — Surrender of San- 
tiago — Balmaceda's Death — The United States 
Minister 239-250 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. — The Chilian Waterloo — 
Cremation — The Trophy — Chilian Types — A 
Domestic " Idyl " — The Devil's Due . . 251-258 

CHAPTER XXIX. — Pisagua — Synopsis of Northern 
Campaign — Dangerous Celebrations — The Town 

— The Harbor — The Pampas — Explorations — 
The Mines, Miners and Nitrate Works — British 
Hospitality — Balmaceda's Loyal Enemies . 259-270 

CHAPTER XXX. — The " Send-off " — The " Kenne- 
BECKER ' ' — Theft — Parables — The Possible 
Invasion of Washington — • The Too-hot Outpost 271-277 

CHAPTER XXXI.— The Ocean Swell — Three 
American Vessels — Home News — " Tuberculo- 
sis " Triumphant — " Electrocution " to the 
Rescue — Chilian War News — Curious Blue- 
jackets 278-286 

CHAPTER XXXII. — The Falkland Islands — 
Stalwart Patriotism — South Sea Ladies of 
Fashion — Imported Government Officers — The 
Matrimonial Amadis — The Many-titled Official 

— The British Pirate — A Compromise . . 287-299 

CHAPTER XXXIIL— Nearing Home — Fernando de 
Noronha — The Nautical " Spiritual Thermome- 
ter " — The South Atlantic Physician — Ship- 
mates Too Long 300-306 

CHAPTER XXXIV.— Wreck of the " Onward " — 
The Wanton " No'theaster " — "Forward, or 
Currituck Beach ! " — " Cross-bearings " Impos- 
sible — In the Breakers — A Tough Mast — A 
Friendly Bombardment — Prince Draws the 
Line — Reason and Her Enemies — Jack's 
Champions — Prince's Popularity — The Luxury 
OF Indifference ....... 307-327 



INTRODUCTION. 

In this latter part of the nineteenth century there 
seems to be danger of the triumph of the most common 
sensation over the most uncommon sense. The histri- 
onic majesty of Booth and Barrett fails to fill the seats 
of the playhouse, while the giddy evolutions of some 
scantily-dressed, derrick-limbed " Danseus-ita " or the 
spectacular display of made-up charms and tinseled 
scenery causes to be disputed every square foot of aisle 
and corridor. The productions of Thackeray, Haw- 
thorne, Scott, Cooper and other masters of instructive 
fiction appear to be in danger of being asphyxiated 
beneath the overwhelming mass of light and immoral 
works of panders to human folly and vice ; as w^ell as of 
being superseded by the impossible dreams of those who 
v^ould sap the foundations of social, political and religi- 
ous structures, without suggesting a substitute that "would 
be endurable to the present race of human beings for a 
single year. Many of the newspapers of the day apply 
the term " cruelty " to the few brave soldiers who pro- 
tect our frontier settlers from the scalping-knife, the 
tomahawk, and the deadly bullet of a race which a 
British officer once described as " the most subtle and the 
most truly ten-ible of all who ever inhabited God's 
earth " — and yet lionize the brutal madmen who culti- 
vate the " noble art " of pounding each other's faces 
into shapeless masses, for no visible purpose except, per- 
haps, that of ascertaining who can undo the most of 

Ci) 



2 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

God's work.* PhilanthroiDic people overlook such 
prosaic matters as the most hopeless misery, squalor, 
ignorance and heathenism in the by-streets of our own 
great cities, and search for a more interesting chance to 
show their humanity among anarchists and nihilists in 
Siberian convict-settlements, their charity among the 
warm and well-fed tribes of Africa, and their love of 
imparting knowledge and teaching Christianity among 
the cunning natives of the Far East. In these circum- 
stances it appears hopeless to write anything merely 
showing every-day life, of any kind whatever, in the 
hope of getting a reader. 

To introduce a shark and then not see to it that he is 
nearly large enough to pass for a whale, that he imme- 
diately whets his appetite by hastily swallowing a few 
" common sailors," and then allows the hero or heroine of 
the tale to escape his mammoth jaws only by a mere hair's 
breadth ; to write of a storm which does not end in 
disaster to all concerned, and in death to all except the 
favored one — saved only with the merest spark of life, 
which must be carefully fanned into a flame by the 
heroine or it will flicker out (which heroine turns up 
at the vital moment, in the most unexpected manner, 
accompanied with the inevitable " bottle of brandy," the 
presence of which can be explained with less embarrass- 

* I do not wish to be misunderstood. My horror of a fight dies at the 
threshold of a good cause for it. Since writing this an incident of the 
ring has made me hope there may be oases in the great desert of 
brutahty, bullyism and cowardice. If the "champion" of the world be- 
comes the bully of the world, outside of his profession, it may be neces- 
sary to educate some one to stop his swaggering — particularly if our 
laws will not admit of his being locked up. When an athletic man 
uses the sacred power Providence has given him exclusively to humiliate 
ruffians, I have no quarrel with him. 



INTRODUCTION. 6 

ment in fiction than in every-day life) ; to mention a 
rock or a desolate island and then not cause some one to 
cling to it for months, fed onh^ by an occasional gull or 
exceptional niollusk, momentarily expecting some con- 
vulsion of Nature which shall cause his asylum to return 
to the unfathomable depths from which it was up- 
heaved just in season to receive him; or to chronicle a 
voyage made without outwitting a pirate, checkmating 
a false-hearted wrecker, or outflanking a cannibal; — is 
to fly directly into the face of Providence, and v\^ill 
probably leave one's volume, bound in either " congen- 
ial calf " or paper (according to the financial condition 
and eccentric prodigality of the author), to load the for- 
gotten and dusty shelves of some unfashionable publisher. 

Meanwhile Young America will continue to prepare 
himself for an early desertion from the shelter of the 
family roof by reading startling feats of bear and Indian 
hunters, marvelous exploits of bipedal wolves and 
"Human Sleuth-hounds," and the stereotyped adven- 
tures ascribed by sensational maritime novelists to all 
who have plowed the ocean since Sinbad and Noah; or 
for a life of dissipation by reading the obscene works of 
depraved French authors: while his father will read up 
yet more mad schemes for living without care, work or 
religious responsibility, and quarrel with legislators and 
statesmen for not bringing about the situation enjoyed 
by our earliest ancestor before the Fall, — and this with- 
out the authority of the Creator, or any attempt to con- 
form to His laws. 

Yet the writer — having discovered that it makes the 
voyage seem shorter to write something; having long 
known that he has not the talent to enable him to fol- 



4 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

low in the path of the ilhistriovis men referred to above ; 
and having decided that he does not care to be responsi- 
ble for the curious kind of fiction produced by the mari- 
time novelists of the day, eA'en if he could manufacture 
it (which he earnestly hopes he could not) — has de- 
cided to try the experiment of writing the events, if 
there should be any, of the voyage, while yet alive to tell 
the tale, and risk finding a reader willing to countenance 
a survivor who will probably fail to even marry a 
heroine in the last chapter. 

That the writer himself must be almost continually 
on the stage, is one of the disadvantages of this 
kind of writing ; but as every good sailor gives the 
first place to his ship, and as most readers have friends 
or acquaintances, or have had ancestors or relatives, in 
the profession, the author hopes his individuality may 
be merged in either the one or the other, and that the 
reader will understand that he hopes his adventures and 
expei-iences will be of interest only so far as they may 
be amusing and instructive, or suggestive of those of 
others in the same profession. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Ship-keeper. — The "Onward." — The Crew and their 
Proprietors. — The Runaways. — The Capture. — Piratical 
"Mashers." — The Home Coast or Slavery. 

On a chill, damp, cheerless morning toward the 
close of March in the year '91, a passenger might 
have been seen on the forward deck of an eastward- 
bound New York Tenth-street ferry-boat. This pass- 
enger might have noticed, lying moored at a wharf a 
short distance below where he was going to land, a 
vessel of moderate dimensions, on the deck of which, 
walking about uneasily, now looking with surly disap- 
proval at a passing boat, now staring doubtfully at 
some stranger on the wharf as if half inclined to jump 
down and dispute his right to be there, then, while 
the expression of his face changed to a look of wist- 
ful expectation, gazing long and thoughtfully at the 
companion-way, was a tall, distinguished-looking — 
dog. 

The most noticeable features of this craft were, 
that she was built of wood, was painted black from 
the rail to the water's edge, had three masts "raking" 
at a certain angle with the water-line, and had her 
hatches closed and battened down so that however 
inquisitive might be any who was on her deck, 
unless he enjoyed the confidence of some one be- 
longing to her, he could form no idea of the nature 
of the cargo which was stowed below. 

C5) 



6 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

Presently a flourish of his tail and a clumsy bound 
toward the companion-way indicated that the dog 
was no longer alone ; and a moment later a human 
figure appeared at the cabin door. After patting his 
faithful watcher on the head and glancing at the 
main hatch to see if it was securely battened down, 
the new-comer advanced to the gangway and began to 
scrutinize the numerous fleet of tugs and other steam 
craft with which the East River was thickly dotted, 

I must now confess that this vessel had not been 
mysteriously fitted out for a nefarious expedition, but 
was only the Onward, loaded with locomotives and 
general cargo for Cape Town, South Africa ; that 
her hatches were not battened down for purposes of 
concealment, but simply and only as a safeguard 
against invasion by salt water ; and that the person 
at the gangway was not one of the most vicious buc- 
caneers who ever escaped hanging in chains, but only 
her master, the writer, looking for the tug that was 
to bring his officers and crew and tow his ship to 
Whitestone. As for the passenger on the ferry-boat 
(if there was one), he has probably gone about his 
business (if he had any), and will not again be men- 
tioned in this narrative ; while the dog, though of 
pure patrician blood from a canine point of view, 
will be satisfied with a mere passing notice when 
occasion arises and will not figure as a leading char- 
acter. 

Before commencing to write, it never occurred to 
me but that the reader was the only victim sacrificed 
at the shrine of the awful first chapter ; but I have 



THE CREW AND THEIR PROPRIETORS. 7 

learned that at least in some cases it is equally a bore 
to the writer : and though I hope to lead the reader 
through paths not trodden by him every day, I did not 
know but that it might lighten the burden to both of 
us, to begin the journey by one which is well-beaten. 
The novelist, who may with impunity cause his iirst 
chapter to reek with a deep-dyed villain, a horrible 
murder, or a mutilated victim, has a decided advantage 
in this respect ; and only for a threatening difficulty 
in the construction of the chapters to follow, I should 
doubtless have chosen that line as the easiest. 

Soon a tug shears off from the fleet in the river 
and heads toward us, at the same time emitting a 
loud, oft-repeated whistle which indicates that she is 
the one for which I am looking. She comes along- 
side and a number of men jump on deck, two of 
them, in whom I recognize my officers (having seen 
them once before), coming aft to announce themselves 
and get my orders. Others commence to pass the 
baggage on board, while a third lot take a stand by 
the main rigging and watch them. Those handling 
the baggage are my crew, whom I now see for the first 
time, and the others are their owners, who are to re- 
ceive the proceeds of the sale. 

Seeing that the ship is not ready for sea, these last 
come and accuse me of having committed a breach 
of their laws, in getting a crew on board before the 
work has been done. I plead all the extenuating cir- 
cumstances — bad weather, inconvenient position of 
the ship, etc. — and timidly suggest that as she must 
lie at Whitestone while I settle up business, I might 



8 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

be allowed to finish the work with my crew. After 
due deliberation, the breach not being so rank as 
once when I presumed to ship men who were not 
under their care, paying large wages and no advance 
(in which case they made me appreciate their power 
by refusing to allow the ill-gotten crew to "join"), 
they decide to grant a dispensation ; and the men, 
who have signed articles to make a voyage in viy 
ship, who are to receive my money as wages, and for 
whom I am to provide food, are allowed, by special 
favor, to do my work ! Shades of you who have 
fought and fallen for that precious boon, Freedom, I 
ask you if this is to be my share of it ? 

Of course, in the interests of discipline, there must 
be a penalty ; and I am ordered to pay them for the 
time (several days) between the day of their signing 
and that on which they came on board. As there 
are several cases on record of "Jack" having stayed 
by his vessel for the voyage (since the late United 
States laws have prohibited him from handling much 
of his pay, or keeping any of it), there is some dan- 
ger in this ; but having once tried to pay a crew four 
dollars each per month above the quoted wages, for 
the sole purpose of bringing about this curious result, 
I shall not allow myself to lie awake nights through 
fear of paying the penalty. If one of the men should 
remain on board and again go to sea in her after she 
has been docked in Cape Town, I will willingly pay 
these few days' extra wages, in exchange for a strange 
tale to tell when I get home. 

The advantages of showing respect for law in fu- 



THE CREW AND THEIR PROPRIETORS. 9 

ture having thus been vindicated, after a hot discus- 
sion with one refractory member, who thinks himself 
a mathematician but is soon bullied into the belief 
that his figures lie, the goods are handed over to us, 
their shepherds ranging themselves along the edge 
of the wharf to guard against the possible " double " 
that might result in the payment of some advance 
note being stopped, and we cast off and swing clear 
of the wharf. 

Arriving off Whitestone, we let go the anchor and 
I return in the tow-boat to the city to settle up busi- 
ness with the enemy, leaving the officers and crew to 
put the little craft into condition to buffet the winds 
and waves of the North Atlantic ; first cautioning 
the officers to avoid sending the sailors too high 
above decks, until they shall have fully recovered 
from the alcoholic trance in which they have bal- 
anced up accounts with their "masters." On the 
following day I returned on board in the delightful 
consciousness that I might now wash the metropoli- 
tan dust from my face, and not have a relapse of it 
until I should have recovered my scattered senses, 
and recuperated my health by two months of breath- 
ing God's pure air, and had time to get my armor 
repaired and my line of battle re-formed for a 
renewed contest for my share of the wreck. 

After spending some months in port, trying desper- 
ately to get to sea before his meagre freight shall 
have been plucked of too many of its charms, and 
to escape as much as possible from the arbitrary 
and oppressive measures of those curious monsters 



10 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

who live between sea and land, there is, perhaps, no 
solid comfort to be taken by any other hale and am- 
bitious man, that can equal that of the navigator 
when he can smoke the pipe of peace in the con- 
sciousness that all he need attend to is "'tween stem 
and stern, truck and keelson;" and (with all due re- 
spect to man be it said) can depend solely on his 
Creator to get fair play. To those who spend the 
most of their time on shore, it may appear that our 
situation is unsafe ; but I cannot see but that we 
enjoy our share of His protection from the Grim De- 
stroyer, though our public way of slipping out of the 
world, involving underwriters and other moneyed 
interests (while theirs is a quiet, every-day affair, 
often benefiting and sometimes pleasing most of the 
survivors whose attention is called to it), as well as 
our way of going m numbers (while they usually 
make the dread journey alone), makes it seem other- 
wise. Our great advantage is in knowing that for a 
while we may call in our pickets, and not be in con- 
stant fear of attack from those who keep up a steady 
fight for the best seat on the Bellamy "coach." 

Although the wind had been easterly for several 
days, it continued so for several more, and we could 
only lie where we were and wait for it to haul. I 
took an occasional trip ashore to visit one of the 
forts, and some of the officers of the post came on 
board in the hope of getting an insight into piracy, 
or to have a farewell chat with the writer. On 
Sunday, having some letters to mail and the 
Government steamboat not running, I thought I 



THE RUNAWAYS. 11 

might venture to land at the fort with my own boat, 
without having a celebration with my pirates that 
would result in its becoming as historical as the 
Landing of the Pilgrims. 

It would be curious to ascertain why the average 
human being will deliberately delude himself with 
the theory that he can manage to do a thing, even 
when nearly all his experience points the other way. 
The man who is usually in debt appears always to 
think that a way to pay is soon to occur, though he 
never saw one during his life. The enthusiastic 
seeker after " millenniums " always sees one in the 
immediate future, though every attempt to bring 
one about which he has witnessed has resulted in 
disaster. 

I landed at the wharf, ordered my second mate 
and boat's crew not to leave it, and started ashore. 
At the head of the wharf I was challenged by a sen- 
tinel ; but because (as I supposed) I was well known 
there and had often been the guest of the Post Com- 
mander, I succeeded in passing. I congratulated 
myself on my advantage in this respect, it being 
plain that no one else belonging to my boat would 
be allowed to pass. After getting an assurance 
from the sentinel that this hypothesis was correct, I 
felt sure that I might now indulge my weakness for 
a "yarn," and so went to the Ofificers' Club and set- 
tled down for an hour's chat. I soon became un- 
easy, however, and arranged for some of the officers 
to go on board with me ; thinking a sailor safer 
when surrounded by water than in any other position. 



12 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

When we got down to the wharf, we found the 
second mate alone ; and he told me that the sailors 
had been allowed to pass, but that when he at- 
tempted to follow them for the purpose of trying to 
retrieve them, the sentinel had coolly told him that 
he must not leave, as he (the sentinel) had promised 
to keep some one there to look after the boat. 

When I was a boy and aspired to becoming a 
Daniel Webster or a David Garrick, I used to call a 
school-mate " Rollo," and ask tragically: — "How 
didst thou pass the guard ? " I then thought it 
nearly impossible to do so unless one had the coun- 
tersign, or was a well-known "friend;" but here it 
had been done by perfect strangers, whose only 
countersign was the fact that they were sailors un- 
provided with "rum." It might appear to the inex- 
perienced that this would not avail them ; but 
though in a weak moment I credited the United 
States regular army with the necessary ability to 
stop them in these circumstances, I knew before 
that if Pluto himself wished to hold one of them in 
the Infernal Regions, even though he had Charon on 
the lookout, Ixion at the wheel, all the Furies on 
guard, and Cerberus as Officer of the Day, — unless 
he had all the rum stowed inside, he could never do 
it. 

I went to where that ancient luxury but modern 
necessary of life could be got, and learned they had 
been there, but had gone away by the highway lead- 
ing to the nearest railroad station. I was provided 
with a horse and buggy by an obliging bystander, 



THE CAPTURE. 13 

whose epitaph will never express half what I felt, 
and in company with a pleasant young Lieutenant of 
Engineers started in pursuit. We soon met a 
soldier, who said the runaways had asked him what 
time the next train went to New York. I have long 
known that a sailor can get drunk without money, 
friends, or credit ; but how did they expect to get a 
passage to town } (I have since learned that one of 
them had, in anticipation of the emergency, broken 
open the chest of a young Dutchman among my 
crew, who had not been long enough under Uncle 
Sam's protection to give up all hope of having the 
use of his pay, and to be loyal to the boarding- 
master who expects to live on it, and confiscated a 
few dollars which had been surreptitiously hidden 
there for the use of the owner.) 

We overtook them when but little over half-way 
to the station, and though they seemed to be a little 
surprised to see me they tacked instantly, showing 
no anxiety except to make me believe they were 
simply and only looking after a drink ; though that 
in that quest they had already been often successful, 
their appearance seemed to suggest. As if well 
pleased at their sudden change of programme, they 
then treated the travellers on the highway to a 
general marine-circus, often challenging the horse to 
a race, and making splendid time on the homeward 
trip. The only alloy in the general satisfaction 
which this show produced, was a little indignation 
on the part of a bevy of maidens of color, the 
household servants of a Captain of Engineers, whom 



14 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

they met when far ahead of us, and who resented be« 
ing addressed by piratical beings who had not the 
advantage of a previous acquaintance ; but when I 
had come up and interposed my authority and their 
would-be admirers were again engaged in a foot-race, 
the ruffled fur of these ebony damsels became 
smooth, and a general display of ivory proved their 
somewhat tardy appreciation of the show, the nature 
of which now commenced to dawn on their fluttered 
senses. 

Arriving at the hotel outside of the post, our cap- 
tives tacked in as naturally as a fisherman would 
tack into a school of mackerel ; and though many 
may think I ought to have given them a temperance 
lecture instead, I gave them a drink, and then in- 
sisted that they should go down to the boat ; which 
they did, first exacting a promise from me not to 
blame the second mate for the escapade. I am 
aware of the wickedness of my contribution to their 
revel ; but if any reader thinks that he would not in 
any circumstances put a nail in a man's coffin, let 
him get himself outward bound once, and then get 
his crew to drifting about as these men were, — after 
which I think he will forgive me. 

As there is danger of the reader thinking the 
reason why these men were ready to run away and 
leave their effects behind them was because they 
had been lashed in the rigging while myself and 
officers indulged the bloodthirsty spirit often as- 
cribed to us, I must explain that it was because of 
an indifference to their lot which is the result of a 



THE HOME COAST OR SLAVERY. 15 

knowledge that, however provident they may wish 
to be, they cannot (unless they stick to the coast 
and West Indies and thereby elude Uncle Sam's 
protection) manage their own affairs and receive 
their money like freemen, and that ship-masters are 
forced, by law, to clothe them when and howsoever 
they get to sea. These particular sailors would 
probably not gain anything by a chance to elude the 
arbitrary measures of the " Union Boarding-Mas- 
ter" by shipping privately and unknown to him, 
because the present system has already carried the 
class to which they belong far beyond redemption ; 
but the fact that the respectable class, who will not 
be bought and sold like slaves, have to choose be- 
tween stopping on shore and remaining on the coast 
through the long, cold winters, leaves none but such 
as these with whom to navigate distant seas, — which 
navigation is absolutely necessary if we would have 
our country get one-half the respect among the 
nations that her wealth and resources deserve. 

I hope the present " Italian war-scare " will 
enable our Congressmen to see what a mere pile of 
home-made grandeur we are, while we have nothing 
on which to float the flag, and no sailors to force the 
world to respect it. When we have to fear a country 
v^^hich holds but little rank as a power in Europe, 
and yet do little or nothing to enable American ship- 
builders to compete with the rest of the world (the 
" Postal Subsidy " may result in a race oi firemen, but 
I doubt it), it is about time to "take in the gang- 
way " and retire in-shore out of range, and enjoy our 
self-imposed sepulture as much as we may. 



Chapter II. 

Down the Sound. — Wooden Nutmegs. — At Sea. — The Coal 
Barge. — The Commander of the Railroad Switch. — Farewell 
to the Flag.— "Prince." 

On the following morning the wind was nearly 
north, though there were indications that it was 
probably N. E. in the Sound. We hove up our an- 
chor — not because we expected to do much, but on 
account of the guilty consciousness a sailor feels 
when his ship is ready for sea and he does not go. 
After making a couple of tacks, and finding that we 
did not gain much, I arranged with a tug-boat to 
tow us to Sand's Point, in the hope of finding the 
wind the same there, or that in the meantime it 
would haul westward. We found it northeasterly, as 
I feared, and were in for a "beat," as well as the fear 
of thick weather. We succeeded, after pretty close 
work, in getting to windward of New Haven, when, 
the wdnd being about east and the weather looking 
worse, I decided to make that harbor and wait for a 
chance to go to sea. Even if we should get farther 
down, we could not go to sea until there should be a 
change. The only time the writer has broken this 
rule, the wind was N. E. ; and it forced him so far to 
the southward that he was much longer (eleven days, 
his next longest being seven) reaching the forty-fifth 
meridian, this side of which he does not go much to 

Ci6) 



DOWN THE SOUND. 17 

the southward, lest the trade winds push him too far 
west to clear the coast of South America. Once, 
when he was mate, he was fifteen days beating past 
Cape St. Roque, making what could have been done in 
one day if he had been a hundred miles farther east. 
Though the idea of taking the Sound when bound 
east originated in eluding the higher rate of pilotage 
ma Sandy Hook, since I have got acquainted with 
that body of water, I find it much better on account 
of the advantage in this respect. 

Two more days of easterly wind, part of which was 
occupied by a storm of alternate snow and rain which 
made us congratulate ourselves on being snugly in 
harbor, and the wind changed to " the nor'ard and 
west'ard ; " coming down "butt end first." The 
schooners commenced to get their anchors, but it 
blew so hard that I was uneasy lest the extra resis- 
tance of our yards should break out our anchor before 
we should have the cable short ; and there was not 
much room to drift. We soon tried, however, but our 
anchor began to come home while there was yet a 
pretty long scope of chain out, dragging so heavily that 
her head would not pay off enough to fill away, and we 
began to make dispatch toward the breakwater. 
When within a cable's length of that uncomfortable- 
looking rock-pile, we managed, by a new system of 
tactics with the most dismally contrived windlass 
ever produced by delirious mechanic, to pay out 
enough cable to bring her up a short distance inside 
of the light-house at the end. We could almost see 
the keeper's babies flattening their noses against the 



18 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

window-panes, while trying to see what kind of a 
monster was threatening them with collision. 

Here was a situation that would have delighted 
the heart (?) of a Gotham tug-boatman. The first 
fair wind that had occurred for about fifteen days 
was blowing away, the schooners were passing us 
and plunging through the foam in a manner to fill 
with envy and despair the navigator who was "not in 
it, " and I, the "deep water" man, the one of all to 
be plucked before I escaped to become the victim of 
some one in another quarter of the globe, lying 
where the first attempt to get my anchor in the 
usual manner would result in our being dashed 
against this formidable mass of stones, which, when 
"to wind'ard," forms a secure barrier against the 
ravages of Neptune that can only be fully appreciated 
by weary and sleepy navigators, but which, when 
close to le'ward, immediately becomes the enemy. 

I set the usual signal for a tug, and, having always 
heard that the stranger who ventured into Connecti- 
cut was liable to be charged exorbitant prices for 
hams which prove to be made of wood, began to 
put up plans for running out kedge-anchors by means 
of which to swing the ship clear of the breakwater, 
when the dread manufacturer of clocks and wooden 
nutmegs should open his mouth and expand his lungs 
to such an extent that I should see my future freight 
melting like snow in a summer sun. Judge of my 
surprise when this New England shark, this penu- 
rious fashioner of shoe-peg oats, with a cheerful 
voice, and apparently unconscious of the existence of 



WOODEN NUTMEGS. 19 

the dread barricade of rocks to le'vvard, asked if I 
wished to get to sea, and then named a price which 
would have been fair and reasonable if I had been in 
the most pleasant of situations. 

I immediately closed the bargain, and in half an 
hour we were plowing through the foam as proudly 
as any, showing the schooners the advantage of 
yards when running before the wind, even if they do 
make us late in starting ; and hoping to put in a good 
part of our future among people who can, perhaps, 
drive a sharp bargain with those who are on their feet, 
but when they are down are willing to leave them 
their "scalps" to keep their heads warm in old age. 
After all, it is being bullied out of what we think be- 
longs to us that makes earth seem the most uninhab- 
itable, and happy is he who only has to arm himself 
against those who give him a fair chance. 

We sometimes hear the people of New England 
abused for being so careful of their money; but I wish 
that in all other parts of the world the inhabitants 
were as willing as they to allow a stranger to "live." 
I have usually noticed that in any place where the 
people take good care of their worldly goods, they 
are in the same ratio willing that others shall take 
care of theirs ; and that the most heartless methods 
of getting money usually accompany a reckless habit 
of squandering it. The professional gambler is, by 
all odds, the greatest spendthrift when in funds ; and 
he will deprive his unwary victim of his last dollar 
with as little anxiety about what becomes of him 
afterward, as the ferret feels for the welfare of the 



20 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

rabbit whose blood has excited his thirst. The so- 
cialist, who urges the equal distribution of wealth, is 
usually a man who has none of his own ; and is also 
one whose utter incapacity for keeping it if he had 
it, debars him from sympathy with those who, by 
frugal habits and close attention to business, have 
managed to lay some by for "a rainy day." 

But perhaps a ship-master, whose life is made up 
of defensive measures for the preservation of what be^ 
longs to him, should not be critical of those less (or 
more) favored ones who live entirely by attack. 
Even when our charters are made we act only on 
the defensive, as between us and the merchant whose 
goods we carry is the irrepressible ship-broker, who 
allows neither of us to sleep until a bargain has been 
closed, so that his share may be harvested. We 
therefore pose as lambs, even though devils have 
smiled and saints wept during the transaction. To 
be candid, if I were forced to join the attacking 
party, I am afraid I could find no suitable opening 
except on the highway. This would be as unfair as 
any of the methods to which we fall victims ; but the 
privilege of wearing a mask would be a temptation 
to one who blushes easily. 

We soon disposed of the schooners which were 
immediately ahead of us, and before long Little Gull 
Island with its light-house, resembling a huge steam- 
boat, began to loom up on our starboard bow. After 
a desperate fight with a strong head tide in "The 
Race," we shaped our course for Block Island, pass- 
ing the whistling buoy on Cerberus Shoal just after 



AT SEA. 21 

sunset. Early in the evening we passed Block Isl- 
and Light, and the dark, undulating surface of the 
Atlantic stretched away into the gloom before us. 
A few schooners show a red or green gleam of light 
or a dark cloud of canvas as they steal by into Vine- 
yard Sound with a cargo of the chief article of com- 
merce now carried in American bottoms — must I 
tell it? — coal; after which nothing disturbs the 
uniformity of the scene, save an occasional survivor 
of the old easterly sea, which faintly tries to struggle 
against the N. W. wind, but is rudely repulsed and 
shows a weird white spot in the inky expanse when 
its crest is broken and it yields to the superior 
strength of its young rival. We are not yet quite 
far enough out to be disturbed by the mighty fleet 
of European ships which has monopolized the 
cruising ground of our fathers. 

Where shall we again see the gallant banner — the 
alternate red and white stripes of which blended into 
such a beautiful pink when seen from a distance — 
that once floated from the peaks of most of the ves- 
sels in this quarter of the Atlantic .'' Alas ! where } 
Where are the ships which unfurled it to the breeze ? 
Since leaving New York we have sailed through the 
only sheet of water where they are to be seen in any- 
thing like their old numbers. What are those 
ungainly looking hulks, those clumsy " bottoms," 
appearing as awkward in the cruising ground of 
palatial inland steamers and symmetrical pleasure 
yachts, as would an old sailor in a Washington 
ball-room ? 



22 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

As we come down the Sound we see a modern 
tug-boat in the distance, and, attached to her and to 
each other at intervals of about i6o fathoms, a suc- 
cession of "ark "-like structures, stretching far astern. 
What rude nautical architect could have constructed 
these for this service ? Why that high, ponderous- 
looking bow, and broad, square stern, on a vessel 
built for a coal barge ? What letters are those on 
the stern of the nearest one ? A glass there, 

steward! S o: what, the 5 of Is this 

ignominious plight the lot of the gallant Indiaman 
which once caused the American ensign to "flout 
the sky " among the spice islands and cocoanut 
groves of the Eastern Archipelago ? Is the hold 
which was wont to be stowed with the choicest 
brands of tea to be found in the " Hongs " of China, 
the most fragrant spices of Malaysia, and the most 
beautiful silks of Hindostan, to henceforth receive 
nothing but base fuel ? Where are the tapering 
pyramids of canvas that once towered high above 
that clumsy-looking hulk, the loss of which has 
transformed her from a bird-like vision to an un 
couth satire on our departed maritime glory ? 

So these are the "bottoms " of the fleet which was 
once sailed by as hardy a race of mariners as ever 
navigated God's footstool ! The successors of Paul 
Jones and Captain Lawrence, those gallant men who 
never turned a back to an enemy, and who made the 
Stars and Stripes respected by all who ploughed the 
ocean ! 

Where are those mariners now ; when, instead of 



COMMANDER OF THE RAILROAD SWITCH. 23 

from fifteen to twenty men springing up the shrouds 
to reef and furl until the straining spars can stand 
the pressure of storm or hurricane, the sturdy canal- 
boatman at the helm, at the first appearance of a 
cloud, strains his ear for the welcome signal from the 
steam-whistle of the tug to haul down the little three- 
cornered sail set on the diminutive pole that is just 
long enough to allow a lantern to be hoisted the 
"regulation height," and "bear up " for some haven 
along the route ? 

The question is hard to answer. Some are tilling 
their hereditary cornfields, and some are trying to 
get their bread by loading and discharging their Eu- 
ropean successors ; while some have taken to inland 
navigation. I have seen one of my gallant old com- 
manders, — as noble a son of Neptune as ever walked 
a quarter-deck, and whose ship is now to be found in 
the coal-barge fleet, — standing at a railroad switch ; 
the eye that once measured the strain on mast, yard 
and boom, fixed on the approaching train, and the 
voice which once was heard far above the storm, 
and which has caused many a mutinous tar to 
change his mind, lost, when trying to answer my 
shout, in the mad rush of the train as we swept past 
him. " Oh, what a fall was there, my countrymen ! " 

Those glorious old boys are all right yet, if they 
can be found when needed ; and would be as ready 
to join a forlorn hope (and I think it would be 
one, safely enough), if an enemy came along, as were 
their gallant predecessors. But where will the next 
generation find those who will be ready to man any- 



24 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

thing from a double-turreted, steel-armored battle- 
ship, to a log-raft mounting a dynamite-gun impro- 
vised from a length of corporation water-pipe ? If 
I understand it rightly, it is not a question of mere 
courage, but chiefly one of custom and training. The 
soldier who could face, without a wink, the belching 
fire and metallic missiles of a battery on shore, might 
become a child when ordered to climb to the main-t'- 
gal'n'-mast head during a raging storm, to simply 
locate the enemy while far beyond range. The gen- 
eral who could "fight" a hundred thousand men for 
a month, without one getting a scratch from a friendly 
bullet, might, if in command of a ship, sink his most 
trusty consort before the enemy hove in sight. 

But I see that while in contemplation of our de- 
parted maritime greatness like " Marius seated among 
the ruins of Carthage," I have wandered far from 
the subject ; but as the objections raised against 
" Shipping Subsidies " seem to be that they are to 
give money to ship-builders without cause, I wish to 
remind our law makers that under our present sys- 
tem of jDrotection, which our Government seems to 
think the thing, — and with which I do not quarrel ; 
knowing, as I do, but very little about it, — while 
they pay duty on ship-building material and are not 
allowed to build ships in foreign countries and bring 
them home, sonietJiingxvLW&X. be done to encourage them 
or in a few more years our flag will utterly disappear 
from the seas, and we shall be forced to move all our 
goods well in-shore, or quail at every murmur of dis- 
approbation of our conduct or policy, whether it 



FAREWELL TO THE FLAG. 25 

comes from a European power or from Afghanistan 
or Patagonia. 

As for the future immunity from war which some 
maintain, any person whose head is not so full of 
what he thinks ought to be, that he gets no opportu- 
nity to look at the probabilities of what will be, can 
see that the only safety is the wholesome fear of the 
wonderful engines of death to be tried next ; and they 
are not likely to be of much service to those who do 
not hold them or have any one to use them. Let 
him who thinks mankind too far advanced to shed 
blood, patronize the prize ring for a while, or attend 
a Spanish bull fight. The latter is far more barbar- 
ous than the fights of gladiators in ancient Rome. If 
a gladiator could fight well, he could get out of it, the 
audience being satisfied with one death ; but the bull, 
even if he drive everything — man and beast — from 
the arena, must be dispatched in some cowardly 
manner, to satisfy the audience who have paid to see 
him killed. 

But I must get back to the flag. I think that when 
I " deviated " from the voyage, I was about taking 
my leave of it till my return. On my last voyage, 
from New York to Dunedin, New Zealand, thence to 
Auckland, N. Z., and back to New York, — in fact, 
around the earth, — I saw it three times. The reader 
must not get his hopes up. I assure him that I did 
not see an American vessel, save one mail-steamer 
in Auckland, from Block Island to Cape Hatteras, via 
Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn. Off Cape Hat- 
teras, on my return, I saw a schooner that had inad- 



26 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

vertently been blown off shore. The other two flags 
I saw belonged to our consulates, and were set, per- 
haps, in honor of the great event — the arrival of an 
American vessel. If we have not discontinued our 
consulate at Cape Town as an almost useless expense, 
I shall probably see one again this time. 

The ship begins to roll as she gets out on the open 
sea, and the mate gets the anchor stowed, the cables 
unbent, and the hawse-pipes plugged, that old Nep- 
tune may commence his pranks when he sees fit, 
without any of our affairs suffering in consequence. 
The dog, " Prince," a fine specimen of the St. Ber- 
nard race, being about the least of a sailor of any on 
board (having only made a passage from New Zea- 
land), has a short spell of mal de mer, and looks about 
as much disgusted as a dog can look. 

When we arrived at New York, he had apparently 
forgotten that there was such a thing as land or any 
people besides my crew, and was inclined to quarrel 
with every animate thing that came near the ship. 
He soon learned, however, that there was more pala- 
table dog-food than bread, and seemed to enjoy life 
alongside the wharf very much, but never went on 
shore except under protest. My officers and crew I 
shall not introduce to the reader until I have formed 
their acquaintance myself. I know the mate's name 
already, but the second mate's is still a mystery. 



Chapter III. 

Sea Birds. — "Evil Spirits." — Advantages of Na\tgation. 

Three days at sea, and nothing in sight save a few 
gulls hovering above the quarter and closely atten- 
tive as usual, and a " Mother Gary's chicken " (stormy 
petrel) skipping about the chopping waves, now and 
then touching them with the tip of his wing as if he 
had but just discovered them and would like to learn 
what they are. A line of smoke on the starboard 
quarter seems to indicate that a steamer is coming 
this way, but elsewhere the horizon is unbroken save 
by an occasional sea which towers up a little higher 
than its fellows. We have seen some mail-steamers 
and a few "tramps," but appear to have had the sail- 
ing business pretty much to ourselves. 

I could never discover what object these North 
Atlantic birds have in view, when they make a 
voyage. Those of the southern oceans seem to follow 
a ship for the purpose of picking up what food falls 
or is thrown overboard ; but these appear to be en- 
tirely above this weakness. The gull usually sails 
about fifty feet above the ship's quarter, turning his 
head from side to side as if trying to learn what is 
going on on deck. These seem to be suspicious that 
they have struck an American ship, — one of the kind 

(27) 



28 UAWER COTTON CANVAS. 

which some old, gray-headed gull of their acquaint- 
ance claims to have seen in early youth, — and wish to 
examine her well in case they should never meet an- 
other. The Mother Gary's chicken seems to have in 
hand some mysterious mission not to be understood 
by ordinary mortals. Though he always flies close 
to the water, I have rarely seen him pick up anything ; 
yet he appears never to take any rest, but flits 
about constantly as though his work will admit 
of no delay. 

There is one species of bird in the far South, 
whose habits seem to be even more weird than his. 
I often heard them called "ice-birds;" but I never 
noticed that they make it a point to stay among ice- 
bergs, or have anything to do with them when they 
are among them. Another name, and the one I use 
as most appropriate, is " evil spirits." I learned it 
from my grand old commander, — him of the railroad 
switch, — and what he did not know about southern 
seas is likely to remain a mystery to American na n- 
gators. They are of a ghastly " moonlight " color, — 
a very light drab, — with stripes of a darker shade 
across their wings ; and when they are seen in great 
numbers, it is time to have the "torps'l halliards 
clear" and the "earin's" ready. Their habits are 
entirely exceptional among southern sea-birds, and 
they do not appear to pay any attention to the ship, 
though keeping about the same distance from her. 
They are usually at a distance of several ship-lengths 
(abeam, and not near the wake), and are very busy at 
some mysterious operations; probably "on service" 



AD VANTA GES OF NA VI G A TION. 2 9 

in the interests of their Dark Master, conjuring up 
cyclones, water-spouts, or whirlwinds. 

As any who do not think of the advantages I enjoy 
might think my situation a trifle dull, I will mention 
some of them. Among the first, is having the privi- 
lege of choosing a good potato for breakfast ; or of 
having two, if I wish for them, without the waiter 
wearying me by looking mysteriously in the direction 
of the proprietor, or by pretending to have a great 
"political pull " with the cook. 

When quite young, I contracted the habit of eat- 
ing butter ; but since the oleomargarine laws have 
been so severely enforced, most of the New York 
restaurants allow such a diminutive wafer of that 
delicacy to be served to their customers, that in order 
to get enough for an adult one must be a thorough 
" lobbyist, " and have a waiter to work with who for 
dark ways can compete with a New York alderman. 
This incessant toil is averted by being at sea.. 

I also find it very convenient not to have to search 
vainly for a nickel several times a day, and, while 
breathless women and children are being violently 
pushed against me, clutch madly at an inner pocket 
in search of a bank note to give to the ticket-vender 
of the "L" road. Of course, if one is once in the 
jam, he must hold his own against all comers, not 
yielding an inch to queen or Quakeress, invalid or in- 
fant, bully or burglar, until he gets the required 
pasteboard, or he will risk being put into the hands 
of the police by the man at the pump-break, who 
seems always to be suspicious that the world means 



30 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

to cheat him out of five cents whenever it can. I 
have always thought women to be more delicate 
than men ; but since I have learned what they take in 
the way of hard knocks when they aspire to enter 
one of those trains, and actually live through it 
for years (without one intervening sea-voyage for a 
rest), I begin to think they are made of " sterner 
stuff" than I am. 

Even the quiet air of serene superiority worn by 
the receiving teller of the bank when an erring mor- 
tal passes him an unsigned deposit check, is some- 
thing one can dispense with, for a while, without a 
sigh ; and if I should live ashore till there vv^as any 
real cause for one of those grave officials looking at 
me reprovingly — the danger of an overdrawn account, 
for instance — a ship not being available, I should feel 
like trying to charter a raft. 

I presume that he who remains on shore, learns to 
see the ferry-boat on which he intended to embark push 
off from the slip a moment before he arrives, with- 
out feeling that the chief charm of life has slipped 
away beyond his grasp ; but, though it occurs to 
me often, I have never yet learned to bear it philo- 
sophically. Neither does it bring out the best traits 
of my character to see go, a minute too soon, a sub- 
urban train which I anticipated catching ; particu- 
larly if I then learn that it is the exceptional time of 
day when, instead of half an hour as I had supposed, 
I must wait two hours for the next. 

The bootblack who insists, when one's shoes are 
clean, and who never comes when they are dirty . 



AD VANTA GES OF NA VI G A TION. 31 

the newsboy who sonorously howls " sunny-wall " into 
your ear while you are vainly trying to read your 
evening newspaper ; the hints one receives of the 
existence of TJie Recorder ; and one's pathetic at- 
tempts, while wearily climbing to the " L " road 
station, to estimate the number of times per day he 
reads " Royal Baking Powder," are among the minor 
troubles ; but I should think that even they would, 
in time, reduce one to a shadow. 

If we add to these minor matters the desirability 
of retaining one's "scalp " mentioned in a former 
chapter, I think it puts the balance in favor of one 
who, for a while, lives without the "fun" of the 
metropolis ; which seems to the outsider to consist 
mostly of elbowing one another in order to get there 
first, and in reading the daily papers to learn who is 
stealing the most of the public money. 

The "chicken" has found a mate, or an associate 
in his work of testing salt water, while the gulls seem 
to have finished their survey and gone to find a bet- 
ter place to pass the night, or perhaps to investigate 
the steamship into which the smoke has long since 
been transformed, and which is fast disappearing on 
the port bow. I will therefore leave them as ex- 
hausted subjects, and wait till time shall have de- 
veloped another. I hope soon to be in a position to 
introduce a whale, or at least the omnipresent shark 
of fiction; but thus far they have kept carefully out 
of sight — perhaps to give the birds a chance. If 
one in this field of work might poach on the pre- 
serves of the maritime novelist of the day, what 



32 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

ghastly scenes could he not introduce ? But as I 
have only a "double torps'l crew," and must keep 
enough of them to get my ship to Cape Town, I can 
not afford to serve one of them up to a shark every 
day. And even if I could, I should nearly always 
have to invent the shark ; which, as " borderin' on 
weal cutlets and dog-fightin','* would positively not suit 
what I am resolved shall be an "unvarnished tale." 



Chapter IV. 

Neptune's Handiwork. — The Storm Ashore. — The Storm at 
Sea. — Shakespeare's Advantage. — The "Curiosity." 

Often, when I meet a new acquaintance, after I 
have answered the stereotyped questions — informing 
him whether my ship is propelled by steam or sail, 
where she runs to, what the cargo is, and whether or 
not I ever change my crew (!) — he asks me if I 
ever get into any storms ; and seems surprised to 
learn that I really do and then go to sea again. Per- 
haps it is surprising to one who supposes that to get 
a storm at sea means to subsist on goat's flesh, be 
clothed in goat -skins, and exist without associates for 
a decade or two ; but this makes it appear that, after 
all, the monstrous stretches of impossible imagination 
that enable the average maritime novelist to crowd 
the adventures of ten lives into one voyage, are not 
generally accepted as a guide to an estimate of what 
our life really is. 

Therefore, as a sailor is not of much use (on shore) 
without a storm to go with him, to make him "go 
down," as it were, perhaps it will interest the reader 
to learn that although it has been but three days 
since we last met, and only six since I passed Mon- 
tauk Point, I have passed through "a storm at sea" 

(33) 



34 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

since I wrote last, and a decidedly uncomfortable one, 
too ; during which the ship took one great plunge, be- 
fore which that of Sam Patch from the brink of 

Niagara, and that of somebody from the Brooklyn 

Bridge, lose much of their precedence. The jib-boom, 
bowsprit, t'gal'n'-forecas'l', and the forward part of the 
main deck, all disappeared together under a mon- 
strous sea. A moment later, apparently not liking 
the situation, they all came up again. What was 
the result.'' 

A broken cat-head (nothing serious — an inanimate 
one, used to hang the anchor to, in which position it is 
" catted " : the feline race is not represented on board 
the Onward this voyage ) ; a few splintered doors ; a 
dreary carpenter's shop ; a washed-out forecastle ; a 
flooded galley ; a disgusted cook ; a spoiled prospect 
for breakfast ; a frightened dog ; a half-dozen melan- 
choly " penguins " searching for a place to hang their 
mattresses, to allow the salt water to run out of them ; 
a skipper hoping, like Mark Tapley, for " better luck 
next time;" and all alive to tell the tale, though I 
shall probably be the only one to think it worth tell- 
ing, and I only because I am in the business. 

When "Jack " spins a yarn, it will be of the time 
when his preservation was almost miraculous, and 
which, as all the world knows, has been the lot of 
nearly every one who has been before the mast for 
any great length of time, and of some characters in 
fiction ; viz., when he was carried overboard by a sea, 
and then dipped up by the next lucky roll of the ship. 
I think this really may have happened to a man who 



NEPTUNE'S HANDIWORK. 35 

sailed as ordinary seaman (or supercargo) with the 
Phoenicians; at least it is not impossible, as "Jack" 
very well knows, when the ship is lying to the wind, 
and, being under short sail, drifts to le'ward. 

When I represented myself as hoping for better 
luck, I did not mean that I was hoping for more to 
tell, but less — of that kind. Though I mentioned 
myself as being in the business of tale-telling, I did 
not mean exclusively. I have not yet learned that it 
will pay ; and, until I do, I hope to see the old On- 
ivard come out ahead, every time. 

Even then, perhaps, it would be more loyal for me 
to resign my commission and build a raft (which 
would be much cheaper, and more thrilling, as being 
easier and oftener brought to grief), than to wish for 
the discomfiture of the gallant craft which, for nearly 
eleven years, has carried me safely to every quarter 
of the globe, through all weathers from a calm to 
a hurricane, through ice-fields and among icebergs, 
amid islands, rocks and shoals, — in short, through 
nearly everything that has beset sailors since the 
day of Noah, save pirates and '' sea quakes." 

Contrary to the old-time custom, the former of 
these are now located on shore ; and the duties of 
ship and master have been reversed. On him now 
falls the task of carrying her away in safety, if he 
would not give her up to be massacred by them, or 
to have her wings clipped and be sold into the ig- 
noble bondage of the tow-rope and coal-dump. The 
latter, — the "sea quake," — although we have to- 
gether cruised in the rea:ion of the Maldivh Islands 



nh UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

(where the tar who usually explains the phenom- 
enon gained his experience), we have not yet met. 
We shall, however, keep a bright lookout ; and if 
one throws up from the bed of the ocean an ancient 
galleon (as is their custom), we hope it will be a 
rich one, and, if it occurs before the Silver Bill 
passes, be loaded with gold. 

The old lady does not appear to have materially 
suffered during her recent battle, having received 
only superficial wounds which can be easily dressed ; 
and I think that when she has gathered her- 
self together, and when the boys get their personal 
effects dry and get a little lost sleep made up, we 
shall again be in good condition to roll on to South 
Africa, or to meet the next onslaught — as the fates 
decide. 

Prince, the dog, seems to have left his sea-legs in 
New York ; and he spent nearly the whole of the 
late uncomfortable period, in alternately searching 
the deck for a spot over which no salt water swept, 
and trying to decide which part of the cabin was 
most likely to weather the gale ; taking advantage of 
every opening of the cabin door to carry out a change 
of tactics, but repenting the instant he had passed 
through, and watching for the next opportunity to 
return. He has now decided in favor of the cabin, 
and seems to think he can trust it to stay somewhere 
near right side up while he takes a little sleep. 

A storm at sea. Here would be a chance, if 
my talent for description were equally good, to com- 
pete with any pen that ever wrote romance. There 



THE STORM ASHORE. 37 

is known to be truth which is stranger than fiction. 
There are also things to be seen, the exaggeration of 
which may defy any tongue or pen in the universe ; 
and this is one of them. The greatest description 
ever spoken or written of it, falls so far short of the 
reality that the field is always open. 

Perhaps a storm on shore may be equal to it, but 
the scene lacks the element that is easily disturbed, 
and by the time it assumes such proportions as to 
become picturesque, people are so busy looking for 
a chance to escape from the terrible consequences, 
they do not have much time or inclination to admire 
the scene. Also, while their place is usually under 
cover, if they can get there, it is just our time for 
being out. 

I was once loading my ship in an open roadstead on a 
wild part of the coast of western Australia, and we got 
a heavy storm. I had then never particularly thought 
of the advantages of being afloat in a storm. While 
the wind was northwest, as the open sea rolled with- 
out interruption right in to where the ship lay, there 
was some danger of the "ground tackle " giving way 
and causing the loss of the ship ; and as two of my 
three companions were wrecks on the beach, — their 
anchors having failed to hold in a like gale, — I sup- 
posed the proprietor of the "station," who had been 
pretty anxious about the cargo, would be down to 
the beach, watching for the result. 

After the wind had shifted to "sou'west," though 
it blew with. redoubled fury (the spray from the break- 
ers flying over the top of an island eighty feet high), 



38 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

the reefs and islands to windward broke the sea so 
that the danger was far less ; giving us a chance to 
view a scene that, for a combination of grandeur, 
sufficient danger to give it " spice," and comparative 
safety, will hardly be repeated, even in the checkered 
experience of a navigator. 

We rode out the gale without the least damage, 
and when I next went ashore, the scene of devasta- 
tion that met my eye was beyond anything I could 
have imagined. Huge trees had fallen all through 
the forest, and although I did not see any houses 
which had been entirely wrecked, trees and branches 
had been flying about so that the inmates could at 
any moment expect their utter collapse, and they 
found enough to fully employ their minds without 
thinking of ships or sailors. 

The proprietor was caught five miles from home, 
and had to ride through the forest on a horse mad 
with fright, evading the falling trees and branches as 
best he could. He would probably not have given a 
thought to anything but his own danger, if, instead of 
a ship partially laden with timber, my vessel had 
been a rich argosy, and he sole proprietor without 
a penny of insurance. In fact, though our danger 
was much greater than if we had been far at sea with 
everything snug, we appeared to have been the only 
ones on that part of the coast who could venture to 
draw a long breath while the gale lasted. 

When we have under us a good ship, tested by 
years of experience, and when all sails are snugly 
stowed — save those which we leave to stand the 



THE STORM AT SEA. 39 

blast, or, with a crack like that of a mule-driver's whip, 
go where they will need furling no more, — we have 
leisure to take in the scene ; and upward of twenty 
years of experience has not shown me enough of it 
to make me insensible to its awful charm. But to 
return to the present ctorm before it all blows 
away. 

The wind, which has been east, hauls slowly south- 
ward till it gets S. S. E., and there makes a stand. 
Yes ; that is where we saw the ominous flash of light- 
ning last evening. The barometer begins to fall and 
the clouds take a deeper shade, while the sun, with a 
dull, sickly, yellow complexion, commences to retire 
behind an ever-thickening film, not unlike a trans- 
formation curtain on a theatre stage. 

We commence to clew up the light canvas, while 
black, angry masses of cloud rise to the zenith and 
discharge spiteful little showers of rain or hail. Pres- 
ently a sharp flash of lightning, instantly followed by 
the crack and roar of a solitary peal of thunder, tells 
us that the work of reefing and furling must begin 
in earnest. Early April is not the time for light- 
ning and thunder to fly about for amusement. 
When they appear at this season, they usually 
mean mischief. 

• The vessel is put under moderate sail, and dark- 
ness comes on as the wind settles into a steady gale, 
while the whole sky becomes a colorless mass, and 
torrents of rain pour from it continually. 

Toward midnight the darkness overhead, which 
seemed perfectly black before, is relieved by a yet 



40 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

blacker mass that suddenly appears at the western 
horizon, mounting quickly toward the zenith. 
" Call the watch there ! All hands on deck ! " 
The lee side of the fore topsail flaps suddenly back, 
becalmed. 

" Luff, there ! Hard down your helm ! " 
The wind has shifted suddenly to the westward^ 
and the ship must be "luffed," or brought up toward 
the wind, to avoid getting her " aback by the lee ; " 
and before we can get her into condition to "jibe " 
safely, she has taken some monstrous plunges into 
the sea, which, though not noticeably large when 
lying to it, now that we have luffed till her head is 
nearly across it, with a gale astern forcing her ahead, 
seems suddenly to have doubled in size and force. 
A few minutes of close work and we have her on the 
other tack, bowling along at a great rate of speed, 
chased by sheets of spray blown from the hideous walls 
of water trying to form themselves into a new sea, but 
which come to grief, "knocked out " by the old one 
from the South, which has not yet given up the fight. 
We now have leisure to take an inventory of the 
wreck. The broken cat -head is rescued from the 
seething abyss under the bow, and the jib-boom 
guys which had been fast to it, are temporarily 
secured elsewhere. The sailors rescue their ill- 
starred household goods from their late jeopardy, 
and find most of them ; only a few having found their 
way through the broken doors and gone beyond re- 
demption. 

Daylight then breaks on a scene which might 



THE SrORiM AT SEA. 41 

inspire the dullest poet (if he were not too much 
frightened to interview the Muses), and is capable of 
stirring the latent spark of romance that sometimes 
lurks, even in the stagnant breast of the morose 
navigator. The solid mass of clouds that formed an 
unbroken veil over the sky has given place to 
angry-looking squall clouds, which cause the wind 
to blow with increased violence as they pass over. 
The sea no longer meets the old one from the South, 
but rolls steadily from the westward, the vast hills 
of water madly chasing each other past ; some of 
them breaking with a roar like that of thunder, 
when their foamy crests are converted into spray, to 
be dashed along yet faster, forming the " spin-drift," 
which flies over the ship's hull, or high up aloft, ac- 
cording to whether it is a "squall" or a "lull" (?) 
between (and which causes Jack to d — n his eyes 
afresh when they get filled with it). 

In the centre of this wild scene, bounded on all 
sides by the dim outline of a doubtful horizon, is the 
gallant little craft, struggling, rolling, plunging ; now 
climbing from the vast trough, now riding high 
on the top of a large sea, and again disappearing be- 
tween two angry monsters, one of which, perhaps, 
breaks and rolls over her. This she instantly throws 
aside, and, as a well-bred retriever recovers from the 
plunge from the river bank, mounts again on the 
next one, as ready as before to renew the race. 

The wind screams and roars through the rigging; 
black, furious clouds sweep by and discharge their 
torrent of hailstones into the concave surface of the 



42 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

straining canvas, where they collect and roll down 
only to be caught again, the instant they are below 
the foot-rope, and hurled by the furious tempest far 
beyond the jib-boom end, into the boiling sea. 
Even the sun himself, when he comes out, seems to 
have a face of fury, and tinges the surrounding 
clouds with a fierce yellow, which tells the sailor 
that Davy Jones has still a large reserve in his 
locker. 

The stranger might think the chances were ail 
against the little craft. Not so the man who has 
seen her ride out dozens just like it, and appear 
perfectly unconscious of having done anything. He 
never doubts that she will add another to her many 
victories, and feels nothing but a sense of pride in 
her ability to laugh to scorn her allied enemies, 
i^olus and Neptune. 

I must confess that, in the present instance, it 
looks as if she were trying to run away ; but, like 
her master, she does not care to be always in a quar- 
rel, but simply goes on about her business and fights 
only when the enemy flies in her face : in which 
case she tries to "bear it that the opposer may be- 
ware." She has business in Cape Town just now, 
and will fight only when her passage is opposed, — 
as it was during the first part of the present gale. 

She didn't get a scratch as long as both her ene- 
mies fought together ; but when one tried to turn 
her flank, she was forced to change front in a 
manner that exposed her to a raking fire from the 
other till the evolution was made, when she again 



SHAKESPEAKE'S ADVANTAGE. 43 

turned the battle in her favor. Of course, when in 
the vicinity of land — but the reader knows about 
that, and as we are surely not to be in that position 
for some little time, we will leave it till later. An 
account of a gale like the late one, with land close to 
le'ward, I hope we shall be able to leave out of this 
narrative. They are better in maritime novels. 

I am afraid the fear of writing " butchered to 
make a Roman holiday" has made this account very 
insufificient. (I am sure, notwithstanding my cau- 
tion, that I never came honestly by " seething 
abyss.") I do not wish to detract from the renown 
of the literary giants of former centuries ; but what 
a "picnic" Shakespeare must have enjoyed, to have 
had the English language so nearly to himself ! No 
competition to speak of, save an impossible transla- 
tion of the Bible (hidden, perhaps, in the hedge of 
some stout-hearted yeoman), a few sketches rudely 
carved by some precocious shepherd on the bark of a 
tree, and a few wretched couplets scrawled by some 
love-lorn swain on the frost of a Christmas window- 
pane.* (Since writing this I am in some fear lest 
the glass of that age may not have been available 
for a writing-tablet.) Even the very teachers seem 
to have stuck to the Latin' of the Romish or High 
Church ritual, or confined themselves to chanting 
improvised lays in the language of the Gael. 



* Here a critic kicks, and writes on the margin in tlie interests of 
outraged Chaucer and Spenser. Never mind ; the old boys will probably 
never know it. I said " to speak of," and I wasn't going to speak of 
them. 



44 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

To escape the opprobrium of stealing an idea or a 
phrase from a former author, seems then to have 
been as easy as it was for Cain to avoid the tempta- 
tion to partially repair the curse that his injudicious 
parent had but recently brought on the human race, 
by purchasing a self-binding harvester. Now, the 
case is different ; and one may fondly think he is 
giving to the world a priceless literary gem, and 
when, on his next visit to his home, he attempts to 
learn at what hour he must rise in order to again 
look at the first peep of the sun over the tree-tops of 
his paternal woodlands, find a perfect fac-simile of it 
in Robert B. Thomas's Almanac. 

The condition of his mind can then best be com- 
pared to that of mine, when, a few years since, I had 
captured, in a remote corner of the earth, a pocket 
knife of a curious design ; had exhibited it to the 
multitude of brothers, sisters, and friends who had 
gathered under the family roof to sing "Our Jack's 
Come Home To-night " and to make the old rafters 
resound to the musketry-like rattle of popping corn ; 
had accounted for the fact that I had only one, by 
explaining that it was the last one the dealer had in 
stock ; and the next day discovered a box full of 
them in the show-case of the dry-goods, grocery, and 
general-hardware dealer, who held the post-office at 
the cross-roads ! 

It is unnecessary to inform the reader that the goods 
sold "like hot cakes " until every one of my torment- 
ors was in possession of one, and that the temporary 
change of name (curiosity, instead of pocket knife) 



THE "CURWSITYr 45 

given them by acclamation, caused the rattle of the 
"torps'l sheets" that accompanied my departure for 
the Antipodes to be pleasant music to my wearied 
ears. 

Of course, there has since been a proper amount 
of penitence among the culprits, and I think I have 
felt the average pressure of a forgiving spirit ; but I 
am afraid there has been less interest in the contents 
of my trunk, on my arrival home from a voyage, since 
that fatal day : and if with good reason, I can only 
plead that no less brave a man than Achilles would 
have subsequently dared enter the family circle with 
a trunk full of treasures from the mines of Tarshish, 
in the fear that they had been buried there by some 
well-known Connecticut Yankee, that the same kind 
might be exposed for sale on any peanut stand m the 
Republic, and that consequently his life might be 
made a burden until again "under weigh."' 



Chapter v. 

The Sargasso Sea. — The Work of Ocean Currents. — My 
Officers. — The Unmixed " Reb." — The "Letter of Marque." — 
"Skin-deep" Gloom. — The Galley Thespian. 

Twelve days out, and we are now in that part of the 
North Atlantic known to science as " The Sargasso 
Sea," and to sailors as one of the most tiresome parts 
of that ocean. If, as appears to have been the case, 
Noah put in somewhere about a hundred and fifty 
days from the time he hoisted in his gangway until 
he made the land somewhere around Mount Ararat, 
without seeing any sign of life outside of the rail of 
his ship, only the distant situation of that mountain 
and the fact that the "rig" of the ark was not avail- 
able for long voyages, could hinder one from suppos- 
ing that the most of his time was put in here. Not 
only is the navigator who cruises here deserted by 
both fish and fowl, but even the ocean currents shun 
him carefully ; and in vain do I pore over the figures 
of my observations trying to discover one solitary 
mile which the log has not registered. I have 
noticed that people seldom know the full extent of 
their bad treatment, until they attempt to tell the 
sad tale ; which is probably why I now for the first 
time notice that even the Mother Gary's chickens 
desert us here. 

(46) 



THE WORK OF OCEAN CURRENTS. 47 

The Gulf Stream has cruised away to the north- 
eastward on its mission of carrying the superfluous 
heat of the Carribean Sea to help St. Patrick feed 
and warm his children of the Emerald Isle ; far away 
to the eastward the Guinea Current rolls south with 
its load of cool, refreshing air to the perspiring sons of 
Western Africa ; while the Equatorial Current and 
Trade-wind Drift, in the interest of sweethearts and 
wives, flow from mid-Atlantic northwesterly to- 
ward the coast of North America, shortening the 
voyage of homeward-bounders, — leaving this vast tri- 
angular space to accumulations of weeds, derelict 
timber-ships, and other cast-off debris of those 
mighty ocean rivers ; and also to be the cruising 
ground of forsaken outward-bounders. 

I shall not depend much on my second ofificer to 
help me compute astronomical observations, as his 
researches in that science appear to have been very 
superficial. Last evening he discovered a moon ; 
but when he reported it to me, he added that he did 
not ascertain whether it was a new or an old one. I 
suppose I might now venture to introduce some of 
my associate voyagers ; though my own acquaintance 
with them is yet very much limited. 

The native American officer seems to be largely a 
memory of the faded past, when our ships were yet 
to be found in the van of commercial enterprise ; but I 
have now ascertained beyond a doubt that there is 
one yet in existence, and I have got him. He hails 
from the banks of the Rappahannock, and appears to 
be but thirty-three years of age as he declares ; but I 



48 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

think that, like Julian West, he got into a mesmeric 
sleep sometime near the year '62, and has but 
recently awoke. 

I have often thought I would like to meet the 
genuine " rebel " of my boyhood ; him whom in 
imagination I saw lurking behind the trees of the 
sheep-paddock, — that historical spot where we held 
patriotic musters, armed to the teeth with wooden 
guns, and trying hard to make ourselves believe that 
the roar of his weapon and the "zip" of his bullet 
past our ears, would fill up the measure of our happi- 
ness. But, though I have looked for him for many 
years, I could never drop on one who was my true 
ideal. 

At last, I have found him. My present chief 
officer is such a pure sample of the Virginians who 
followed Stonewall Jackson in the " early sixties," 
that if, during the voyage, we should come across a 
Grand Army man, I should hesitate about allowing 
him to come on board, in the fear that they might 
both forget the lapse of a quarter of a century and get 
to practising at each other from behind the masts. 

It is the best proof of which I have heard, of the 
changes which time will bring about, that a few 
years ago he was captured by the Grand Army at 
Portland, Maine, taken to their camp and feasted for 
ten days, always answering to the name of " Reb," 
and got away without any of those veterans forget- 
ting about the negotiations at Appomattox, and tak- 
ing a friendly shot at him. 

I am glad the race has not died out, for, though I 



THE ''LETTER OF MAT QUE:' 49 

hope we shall never again have occasion to regard 
them as "food for powder," there is a tender associa- 
tion about the "rebs of '62,," the same as there is 
about other things associated with my boyhood ; and 
to have them all become mere " Southerners," would 
be as disastrous, to my mind, as to have the water 
drained from my old skating-pond, or the forest in 
which I hunted crow's nests cut down. 

I have seen a great many rebels, but not of the old 
kind ; and, though I supposed they might be found 
down in Northern Missisippi or in Arkansas, I did 
not know they were so near home as Virginia. 
Rebels are now getting into a vicious habit of 
sounding the letter "r" when they speak, which 
makes them common-place. When the mate first 
asked me what "co'se " I wished to steer, and when 
I heard him order a man to shut a "do','' I knew I 
had found the unmixed "reb." No; I have no use 
for your rebel who sounds an "r." It is as incom- 
patible as for an "old residenter " of rural New Eng- 
land to sound the whole of the syllable "ing." 

As southern people appear to stick pretty closely 
to land, I have not had many of them in my employ- 
ment. And I am glad to learn that the born Ameri- 
can — South as well as North — regards his employer 
as one who is not under suspicion. It is pleasant 
not to be looked on from the first as the enemy, as 
we are by most of the aliens whom we employ. 

The second mate calls himself an American, and 
hails from Pennsylvania. The principal item of 
evidence against the truth of these assertions, is a 



50 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

character in his signature on the articles that 
rarely occurs in the American alphabet, but which 
I believe is quite often made use of by European 
people, when putting their names to instruments. 
It somewhat resembles a Maltese cross, except that 
the arms are narrower. I believe it was first made 
use of by the Early Britons ; as it appears to have 
been, at a comparatively recent date, discovered by 
a scientist named Samuel Pickwick, Esq., on an an- 
tiquated stone, where it had been rudely carved by 
one Bilst Umps. It is often accompanied with a 
word something like " hism " written above it, and 
" ark " immediately below. 

Another thing which makes me doubtful about 
his American origin (the mate says he claims to 
have been horn in Pennsylvania), is the fact of his 
handwriting so nearly resembling that of the ship- 
ping-master who filled out the articles. American 
boys are usually taught at school to write a hand 
peculiar to themselves ; in case they should some 
day have a bank-account, and should wish to draw 
checks that could not be imitated. 

At first one would be sure that he habitually looks 
on the sombre side of life, as he has a face expressive 
of the deepest gloom. The day he lost the sailors 
out of the boat, he looked so dejected that I was in 
some fear lest he might take advantage of my absence 
to do himself an injury (or run away) ; and I think 
the shadow zvas a trifle deeper on that occasion. 
But if he is a Protestant, it will never be known 
whether it was caused by grief at our apparent loss. 



''SKIN-DEEP'' GLOOM. 51 

or because the sentinel would not allow him to go too. 

Finding that the sad look remained, I decided that 
he must be the victim of some great sorrow ; but a 
longer acquaintance seems to go far toward proving 
that his grief is only "skin deep," as he often starts 
a very cheerful subject without any perceptible 
change of expression : and, though his words are 
uttered in a sepulchral tone, his manner seems to 
indicate that he sometimes vainly hopes that he has 
said "a good thing." Having had a case of the kind 
before, it does not surprise me as much as it did 
then ; and I shall not allow myself to be overcome, if 
I should come out and find him dancing a hornpipe 
in the middle watch. 

A few years ago, I shipped a boatswain in New 
Orleans, to go with me to Lisbon and Halifax. 
When I arrived at Port Eads, at the mouth of the 
Mississippi, I found the wind blowing in pretty hard, 
and, the tug having parted some of the head-chains, 
anchored to repair and wait for a change of weather. 
Hearing there were plenty of rabbits near the pilot 
station, I took the boatswain and a sailor in the boat, 
and went ashore to get some of them. This time I 
wasn't afraid of desertion, as there was only a narrow 
strip of dry land next to the beach, and one could 
easily hold anything but an alligator. 

I had noticed a very friendless appearance about 
the boatswain, and as soon as I commenced to hunt, 
using him and the sailors as beaters, I began 
to regret the indiscretion which had allowed me to 
detail him for this service. I remembered a dog in 



52 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

Western Australia, who used to rush ahead when I 
would fire, and, after learning that there was no 
game down, look at me with such blank amazement 
on his face, that I found I could do better by leaving 
him at home. What, then, would be my state of 
mind when the boatswain would start a rabbit and 
I should fail to bring him down ? 

As the grass was tall, with narrow spaces between 
the tufts, I got many of what I took to be reproach- 
ful glances, before we had made the first circuit of 
the island ; but, having bagged one and lamed an- 
other, I started to make the circuit again, at the 
same time covertly stealing a glance at my rueful- 
visaged ofBcer. Seeing no hope, I said we would 
go around again, and then go on board. Was it an 
optical illusion, or did I detect an additional shadow 
on that dejected countenance ? Once having my sus- 
picion aroused, I watched him eagerly, and by the time 
we got around I had decided to order another bout. 

A faint suspicion of fleeting light that shot across 
his face cheered me on to fill out the day, and I did 
so, making a nice "bag;" and though the clouds 
never once cleared, I learned from the mate that 
he enjoyed the whole thing as much as ever Mark 
Tapley did a funeral, and that, far from reproaching 
me for having missed rabbits, he had me down for a 
David Crockett for having shot any at all. 

My steward is a result of the nefarious expedi- 
tions of our wicked ancestors to the coast of Africa, 
and he writes a store-list with a readiness that shows 
the advantages of his education havins; occurred sub- 



A GALLEY THESPLAN. 58 

sequent to the Emancipation Proclamation. He has 
a fair amount of proficiency in the culinary art, and 
I think he has decided that I will do to make the 
voyage with him. Thus far, I have noticed no seri- 
ous signs of his disapproval ; the worst being a sus- 
picion of emphasis in his manner of ringing the bell 
for the second mate, when the mate and I have sat 
at the table a trifle longer than usual, or toyed with 
a dessert spoon till we had finished a conversation. 

When I am not compelled to starve myself into a 
mere shadow by keeping away from the table long 
enough to dispossess their minds of the theory that 
the keels of ships are laid specially for purposes of 
gastronomy, and to give prominence to obscure chefs, 
I think myself among the most fortunate of naviga- 
tors. This is one of the most serious drawbacks we 
have to contend with, when we undertake to make a 
voyage with a steward. 

There are many minor disadvantages about the 
profession, among which I may mention the case of a 
former cJief, who was afflicted with histrionic mania, 
and whose blood-curdling gestures with cheese-knives 
and other kitchen weapons, while washing dishes 
before a triangular remnant of mirror, fixed between 
three nails on the galley bulkhead, caused me a trifle 
of uneasiness lest he should some night be seized 
with the scheme that he was the real Glamis, and 
" murder sleep " by coming to my state-room in search 
of a sleeping Duncan. 

He sailed with me from New York to Buenos 
Ayres, and back to his native island, Barbadoes ; 



54 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

when he called to his aid his acquired proficiency in 
the dramatic art, and treated me to an amateur per- 
formance that would have reflected credit on Forrest 
or the elder Booth. 

He bade me, in the most harrowing tones, know 
that his mother lay on her dying couch, and that she 
had expressed a wish that he be discharged from his 
ship, and tarry with her that he might be ever ready 
to receive her dying blessing, and to fold her attenu- 
ated hands when all should be o'er ; at the same 
time reminding me of the well-known fact, that "we 
can have but one mother." I immediately com- 
menced to look up his successor, and, though there 
were none who inspired bright hopes of future ban- 
quets, I discharged him, and subsequently learned 
that the sugar cane had sprung up and matured and 
the palms had yielded their harvest of cocoanuts 
ten times since the invasion of the silent tomb by 
his sainted mammy. 



Chapter VL 

Celestial Mutiny. — The Ungallant Fisherman. — We Miss 
THE Bellamy "Coach." — "Cat and Dog" Life. 

Fifteen days out, and the N. E. trade-winds are 
fairly established, we having got them at the inter- 
section of the thirty-fifth meridian and the twenty- 
third parallel. We were fortunate in the "horse 
latitudes," a steady northerly wind having carried 
us nearly through them. 

The stars are becoming mutinous, and Ursa Minor 
seems likely to get our chief and most reliable bea- 
con, the Polar Star, dragged beneath the horizon at 
just about the time that the other constellations will 
have got so hopelessly inverted and out of position 
as to be nearly useless ; but luckily the Southern 
Cross is on the right meridian, and is beginning to 
show its beautiful radii well above our southern 
limit of view, promising to partially make up the loss 
to lazy navigators who love to learn how the ship 
heads without the trouble of going to the binna- 
cle or asking the man at the wheel. Ursa Major, in 
his attempts to escape from his pertinacious hunter, 
begins to make semi-circular "doubles" beneath the 
waves, staying down longer at each successive plunge, 
while Canopus, still acting as headlight to Admiral 

ins) 



56 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

Jason's flagship, is mounting steadily higher, — that 
gallant old craft being no longer "hull down." Orion 
no longer fights with steady valor, but takes a reck- 
less plunge at his antagonist below the horizon, while 
his faithful attendant, Canis Major, instead of, as be- 
fore, sitting on his haunches and confidently watching 
the strife, drops to all-fours and hurries down to 
join in the battle. 

Still no fish ; not even a porpoise. There seems to 
be something about the Onward that porpoises 
do not like ; as they rarely come under her bow to 
have a frolic in the foam, as is their custom. Her 
former commander held that they came up under 
her stern, and reading " New Bedford " on it, did 
not dare come under her bow, being fearful of ex- 
pert harpooneers. I don't like to go so long without 
a " haul " of some kind ; but deep-sea fishing is un- 
like other kinds, and one must wait till the fish come. 

When I was mate of the ship P a, a few 

days after getting to sea a school of bonita came 
under the bow, and I succeeded in hooking a few of 
them from the jib-boom end. The captain's wife, 
who was then on her first voyage, having recovered 
from vial de mer, and not having yet learned what 
sailors all know, — that nothing is good to eat which 
has not cost money, — - was much pleased with the 
result of my "haul." 

A few days later she spoke of the fish again, say- 
nig she thought them very nice. I assented, and 
there was nothing more said at the time. Soon, 
however, she spoke of them again, and asked me if 



THE UNGALLANT FISHERMAN. 57 

I did not like them. Though there was a great deal 
of the "old sailor" about me, causing me to be very 
doubtful about the quality of what had never been 
paid for, I was forced, as we often are, to sacrifice 
truth at the shrine of politeness, and said that I did. 

She often returned to the subject, and I had com- 
menced to watch uneasily for further developments 
of the disease, hoping it would not extend to any 
other subject, or, if it did, that she would not become 
violent and need to be put under restraint. One 
day, after I had got prepared to take a solemn oath that, 
considered as a fish for the table, bonita, although 
I could not recall any mention of them having 
been made by the ancients, were, undoubtedly, 
from a modern point of view, far ahead of any fish 
that swam ; and when I was beginning to conjecture 
as to whether or not it would have a good effect on 
her tottering reason to carve out a wooden imitation 
of one and raise it on a pole, as Moses did the brazen 
serpent in the wilderness, she suddenly called to her 
assistance all the courage she could command, and 
asked me zvJiy I did not catch some more ? 

The murder was out. She had been desperately 
trying to excite my appetite for fish sufficiently to 
start me for the jib-boom, and, of course, had got me 
down for about the most ungallant fisherman who 
ever drew line. I explained to her that the pond 
was so large and so deep that to go out and " bob " 
for them was sure to result in loss of time, and she 
showed no more symptoms of lunacy, but waited un- 
til another school should come alone;. 



^^ UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

After fighting " La Grippe " and all the other un- 
comfortable accompaniments of a New York winter, 
it is not unpleasant to be again where one can lie 
down in the shade of a sail and get a smoke, without 
danger of the smoke being transformed into icicles ; 
but it is a good proof of the instability of mankind, 
and should cause Edward Bellamy to despair of ever 
seeing the "ideal Boston," that, notwithstanding the 
honest congratulations I gave myself on my fortu- 
nate escape from the enemy, I begin already to sigh 
for a chance to be hunted by some one, that I may 
have the diversion of trying to escape. 

This profession of mine is doubtless the best in 
existence in which to learn how long one can appre- 
ciate rest and immunity from the toils and vexations 
of life, in that there are very few who need it more 
than we do, after the desperate struggle we some- 
times have to get away from those who are as greedy 
for what we try to save as ever was cannibal for a 
feast of dished-up missionary, and in that there is no 
other position in which one escapes those same vex- 
ations so thoroughly as we do, particularly if the 
weather is fine (as it is now), if we are bound to a 
port which is easy to make (as I am now), if there 
are no difficulties to be apprehended on the way (as 
is now the case), and when we are (as now) making 
as good or better time than we expected. 

If one can then look eagerly forward to the time 
when he will again get into the mad struggle, how 
long would it take the "ideal Boston" to kill 
him with ennui f If two months of comfort are 



IVE MISS THE BELLAMY "COACLLr 59 

too many for him, where will he stow a whole life- 
time of it ? 

It may be urged that the reason is because we are 
deprived of many good things which may be had on 
shore ; in answer to which I can truthfully say that 
I would not care to change my situation on board 
the Otiward for the luxury of Cleopatra's barge 
(without the crowd to admire and covet it), that I 
would not walk a mile to get the best dinner served 
in New York (except for the company in which I 
was to eat it and the envy of those who should fail 
to get a card)j and that I would not exchange my 
present power and authority for that of Nero or Sol- 
omon (excepting the pleasure of having an admiring 
audience when I stepped on the neck of Rome, or 
when a cargo of jewels arrived from Tarshish). 

It is all right for Mr. Bellamy, when he has as 
readers those who have always been around it, to 
mourn about that dreadful "coach," with the favored 
ones riding and the unfortunates pulling; but I ask 
any man who has been both on the roof and at the 
rope, and who has had an occasional spell of being 
away from it altogether, as I am now, if either posi- 
tion is not better than would be a whole life-time 
with no game at all ? Until humanity has been en- 
tirely remodelled, I defy any living man, unless there 
be some impassable barrier between it and him, to 
keep away, for any length of time, from that partic- 
ular vehicle. 

As all cannot go to sea to learn the fallacy of the 
scheme, and as the vague idea that it might — in 



60 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

certain impossible circumstances — be brought about, 
has driven to the verge of madness many of my 
acquaintances whom I have heretofore thought sound 
of mind, I will suggest that, if one looks about him, 
he can see plenty of evidence on shore. 

When I was a boy, victims of oppression were as 
plentiful among my associates, as unoffending citizens 
of the town whose peace we destroyed. There were 
some who were dissatisfied with their places in the 
ball-field ; some who thought they had to be " it " too 
often in the game of " (h) I spy ; " some who did not 
like the programme at all ; and some who got posi- 
tively ill-treated, — wantonly pushed into snow-drifts 
by overgrown bullies, pommelled for no offence 
except that of being weaker than some juvenile 
tyrant, and generally hunted till life seemed to be a 
burden to them, — but I never happened to see one 
who wished to stay at home and exchange all these 
horrible ills for the tender care of an affectionate 
parent. 

No ! they knew there was a "coach ; " and not only 
the hope of getting on the top, but a positive cer- 
tainty of adding their tear-bedraggled faces to the 
throng of selfish tyrants at the rope (who were 
always more oppressive than those on the roof), 
would always tear them from the happiest fireside, 
and precipitate them into the "the swim.'' 

Yet men who know all this, who have been mixed 
up in it since their birth, will work themselves into 
50 much enthusiasm over some moonshine scheme for 
emancipation, that they allow themselves to forget 



"CAT AND DOG" LIFE. 61 

that ever since our two early parents first estab- 
lished the custom of uneasiness, it is impossible for 
their descendants to allow themselves to rest longer 
than to recover from actual exhaustion, before they 
begin to look about them for a little entertainment 
in the way of competition, even if they come out 
entirely at the bottom of the fight. It appears that, 
to the average human being, railing at his hard fate 
is much to be preferred to uninteresting ease. 

If a man cannot see an advantage in making his 
family happy by spending his week's earnings for 
their comfort, over using it for the pleasure of making 
a beast of himself for a day or two, and leaving 
them without sufficient food, about how long would 
it take him to learn to feel an interest in the opinion 
" the Government " has of his attention to duty ? 
Doubtless there are men who are anxious to please 
the Government ; but they are of the kind who 
thrive well in the absence of "millenniums." 

Even Prince is getting uneasy at having so little to 
trouble him since the weather has become fine, 
and he now and then takes advantage of the dark- 
ness to pretend he has found a stranger, and loudly 
protests against the passage of a sailor as he slouches 
aft to relieve the wheel. Last evening he made such 
a violent disturbance, that I thought we must be 
getting a call from Davy Jones, or that old Neptune 
was making us a premature visit. He had located a 
sailor in an unusual place, and saw a chance to pre- 
tend that he could scarcely prevent him from steal- 
ing the ship. 



62 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

Last voyage we had a cat who furnished diversion 
for him ; but she steadily employed aggressive meas- 
ures to ruffle his temper, till, one fatal day, in an 
unguarded moment she paid the penalty for having 
contemptuously " spit " at him so many times, and 
her funeral was the result, — since which time game 
has been scarce. I was indignant at him for a while ; 
but, to look at the matter without prejudice, I don't 
know that a dog is bound by the laws of his nature 
to put up with what he gets from the average cat. 

He appeared to think he was entitled to as much 
credit as would be given to the "tyke" of civiliza- 
tion for having extracted a woodchuck from a stone 
wall ; and never did the stag-hound of romantic his- 
tory look with more complacency on the fallen 
quarry, than that which he displayed when a sailor 
came aft with the limp and inanimate form of the 
poor little victim of his ruthless instinct. But I am 
sure it was she who first declared war, as I often saw 
him look at her with an expression of marked sur- 
prise, long before he commenced to hunt her ; and 
the immense difference in their size enabling her to 
penetrate to unnumbered sanctuaries where she 
might laugh him to scorn, might well tempt him to 
make 'good use of her first miscalculation. 6"//^ knew 
nothing of the "coach," but seemed to display much 
the same taste as do those who have the advantage 
of her in that respect. 



Chapter VII. 

The Soldier's Wind. — The Phantom Cruiser of "The Dol- 
drums." — The Weird Shipmate. — The Prophecy. 

We are now eighteen days out, and have reached 
the twelfth parallel of latitude. We are bowling 
along at the rate of two hundred and twenty miles 
per day with a fresh "soldier's wind" from about 
east, and there is a marked cheerfulness from stem 
to stern. I have even detected a fleeting smile on 
the saturnine countenance of the third in command. 

Porpoises are now and then to be seen cruising 
past, but they appear to be of the educated class, and, 
on learning that the ship hails from the city of whale- 
catchers, do not venture within reach of the deadly 
harpoon. Flying-fish flutter from the path of the 
unknown monster, the steward now and then serving 
up one who had miscalculated the force or direction 
of the wind and come to grief on deck. I wish 
these fish were larger ; for one cannot ask the mate 
to accept a share of one without a false ring to his 
voice which is easily detected. 

Neptune is probably getting his razor stropped in 
the hope of victims ; but I think he has shaved all of 
my present crew, and will find none whose names are 
on his books. My youngest sailors are Norwegians, 

63 



'64 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

and if he ever shaves them, he must do it while their 
beards are very tender. I don't know that they are 
born at sea, but most of them seem to begin navigat- 
ing pretty soon after that event. 

Probably, also, the ghostly navigator who is 
doomed to remain in "the doldrums," will soon get 
his tow-rope coiled in the boat, ready to pull under 
our stern and beg for a tow. I never saw him ; 
but as I believe he sometimes interviews gloomy 
second mates in the middle watch, I doubt not that 
he will find in my present incumbent of that office 
a congenial spirit. As he is not such an authentic 
character as his companions in misery — though op- 
posites in penance — the "Wandering Jew" and 
"Flying Dutchman," perhaps I ought to explain who 
he is. 

Every one who has read much of maritime matters 
knows of "the doldrums." It is a region between 
the N. E. and S. E. trade-winds, covering from two to 
eight and sometimes ten (usually according to the 
season) degrees of latitude, where wind is scarce, and 
where there is sometimes none at all for days to- 
gether. 

In "ye olden time," when wicked people used to 
go to sea, they were sometimes tempted to swear 
rather immoderately, when in this region. The man 
in question was of that kind, and though I never 
heard exactly how it came about, and so cannot be 
accurate in the narration, he was condemned to per- 
petual navigation in that belt of calms. 

Though there is far less swearing done on the high 



THE WEIRD SHIPMATE. 65 

seas by (American) navigators than formerly, yet I 
myself have known men to indulge in it when in that 
situation, and yet get a fair wind after a while ; so it 
is probable that he made a constant practice of " keel- 
hauling " any of his officers and crew who did not 
help him swear. A constant flow of oaths from all 
hands was, perhaps, more than the law would allow. 

However, be that as it may, there he is, in com- 
mand of a phantom ship, floating about wherever the 
currents and rain-squalls carry him, and when he sees 
a ship belonging to the substantial world, he either 
hails her and asks for a tow, or sends his boat in 
charge of one of his ghostly officers, who coolly 
orders the officer of the middle watch (it usually 
occurs at a time when the watch is being kept 
up afternoons, and the officers are a little short 
of sleep) to throw him a line, and haul his hawser on 
board. 

Of course he never succeeds, as it is a part of his 
curse to vanish as soon as he has got the attention 
of the watch officer, just as the "Flying Dutchman " 
always disappears when "Jack " runs his foot against 
a coil of rope, when on the lookout. 

During the last voyage I made before the mast, 
one of my old shipmates — the one of them all who 
appeared to have been 

" Bred 
Between the living and the dead," — 

called me on to the t'gal'n'forecasT to tell me that he 
had just seen the last-named phantom ; but I had 
just before noticed that he was showiner a much 



66 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

deeper interest in the deck at the foot of the capstan 
over which he was drooping than in the lookout, so 
did not get so much excited over the announcement 
as he evidently expected. 

I was not, however, so injudicious as to attempt to 
deprive the goblin cruiser of one yard of canvas, send 
down one of her yards, or even to doubt one of her 
rope-yarns ; because I should thereby have jeopar- 
dized the most fruitful source of marine horrors with 
which it was ever my good fortune to be in communi- 
cation, and which has often caused me to feel a pass- 
ing regret that the luring wiles of third-matehood 
tempted me to the wrong end of the ship to keep 
posted on the operations of nocturnal visitors from 
the land of shadows. 

I think I have never since been so busily engaged 
in retrieving imperilled canvas, that the sombre glow 
of those weird luminaries known to superstitious 
Jack as " corpse-lights," has not brought to my 
mind the many times we gathered around that worthy 
old "salt," with bated breath and ready to be startled 
half out of our senses at the ill-timed blowing of a 
porpoise, to drink in his awful tales of the revisita- 
tions of drowned shipmates, and wild shrieks that 
always foretold disaster to all and death to many. 

On many occasions when he had participated in 
the last rites of a deceased shipmate, the canvas-en- 
shrouded form had paused at the surface of the waves 
and turned deliberately around, facing the vessel, be- 
fore sinking ; which phenomenon had invariably fore- 
shadowed the early return of the disembodied spirit. 



THE PROPHECY. 67 

The peculiarity of his ghosts, and what made them 
particularly interesting to those who had to go aloft 
alone at night, was their nearly always appearing 
high up in the rigging, and hailing the deck ; after 
which their pallid features would penetrate the gloom 
and reveal their identity. 

One in particular always appeared to have a yard- 
rope rove, ready to send down the light yards ; and 
was to be heard during gales, shouting to those below 
to "sway away." If I dare tell the truth, I always, 
after that story, found it more to my taste, if the sit- 
uation were at all "eerie," to reef a topsail with the 
watch or all hands, than to climb alone to a royal or 
skysail ; particularly if each truck and yard-arm 
showed the dull glare of the torch of St. Elmo, 

Whether or not Jack (that was his name) was ever 
consecrated to the service of the "weird sisters," I 
do not know ; but I know that he once showed the 
spirit of prophecy in the most startling manner. 
Like most old sailors, of course he had great difficulty 
in finding officers who would carry the right number 
of yards of canvas to suit him ; and it was seldom 
that we sheeted home a sail, that there was not a 
guttural note of disapproval, issuing from low enough 
down in his throat to be indistinguishable to the offi- 
cer of the watch. 

One night we were carrying topmast and lower 
stud'n's'ls pretty hard, and when an extra puff of 
wind came the boom snapped off at the yard-arm, 
the outer part flying forward and going through the 
jib. By the time we had rescued the demoralized 



68 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

stud'n's'ls, unbent the torn jib, and bent and set an- 
other, Jack was in one of his prophesying moods. 
When we gathered around him to Usten to his inevit- 
able disapproval, I remarked that it was the first spar 
I had seen come to grief. After two or three verti- 
cal movements of his head — not exactly nods, the 
upward motion occurring first, followed by the down- 
ward — he said : 

*' 'Deed an' ye '11 see 'em all over the side afore ye 
gets to be much older." 

Three days later, during an apparently pitiless 
sou' west gale, with the iron-bound coast of Cornwall 
under our lee ; the Lizard Point and the Land's 
End stretching far outside of us on either hand ; 
our position unknown through the fact that the 
glass in the light-house on Penzance pier, though 
thirty-five feet high, had been broken by the sea and 
the light extinguished ; one anchor and both chain- 
cables lost when we had mistaken the lights of the 
town of Penzance, shining through the rain and 
spray, for breakers close aboard ; and our last hope — 
a pitiful little manilla hawser — bent to the other 
anchor ready to let go at the last moment ; the cap- 
tain and two officers were swinging their axes at the 
weather rigging, while I and one or two others were 
gathering the braces together, that we might cut 
them at the correct moment to let all go clear to- 
gether, when a dark shadow passed near us like 
a Nemesis, and, just as I was about to ask who it 
was, a voice came through the roar of the storm, 
and I caught the words : 

" What d' I tell yees ? " 



Chapter VIII. 

The Doldrums. — St. Paul's Rocks. 

Twenty-three days out, and we are thirty miles 
north of the Equator. The N. E. trades took us 
to Lat. 3 degrees North, since which we have had 
"doldrums" of the most uncomfortable — though 
not of the slowest — kind. A big sea has been roll- 
ing up from the southward, and when it has been 
calm, — as it has about half the time, — sails, spars, 
and rigging have been threatened with demolition. 
After we have that for a while, then, by way of 
variety, we get a heavy shower of rain, accompanied 
with a squall of wind which would reflect credit on 
Cape Horn. We then have to get the ship ready to 
stand wind, which we succeed in doing just in sea- 
son to see it die out and leave us becalmed again. 

Last night we had added to the above charms of 
navigation, the fact that St. Paul's Rocks were 
somewhere in the vicinity of the ship, and were 
pretty sure we were in a westerly current, but not 
certain; neither could we. tell much about the 
strength of it, if we were in it. Of course, if a 
squall lasted for any length of time, there was a 
prospect of the rocks turning up close to the ship at 
any moment ; which was a very fascinating addition to 
our comfort while trying hard to save a few yards of 
canvas for future use. 

(69) 



70 UNDER cor TON CANVAS. 

I hoped to pass well to the eastward of the St. 
Paul's, but learned by an observation of doubtful 
quality which I got yesterday, that she was probably 
going westward with the current faster than our 
squalls were taking her to the southward. We have 
made the rocks now, and they are off my mind ; but 
I have learned that the current is about all I feared, 
and she is sweeping to the westward at a good pace. 
I hope the unequal race will not continue long, or 
we shall have a sequel to our present penance bang- 
ing against the S. E. trades, trying to get past Cape 
St. Roque, coast of Brazil. We made the St. Paul's 
after daylight this morning, when the first rain- 
squall cleared, and they were not quite near enough 
to frighten us ; though I would much rather have 
better weather, more reliable wind, and less current 
when I am cruising among such uncomfortable ob- 
structions. 

They are a cluster of barren rocks, the highest of 
which is sixty feet above the water. They have a 
ragged, irregular appearance, and the heavy sea 
breaking over them to-day is so suggestive to the 
navigator of boat-cruising, a biscuit per diem, and the 
pis aller, that he likes to see them a long distance 
from his ship. Myriads of birds hover around them, 
probably not knowing that there is any better land 
in existence ; as they appear to rarely get very far 
away from them. As we passed, one or two awk- 
ward-looking "boobies" came off and flew around 
the shijD a few times ; in consequence, perhaps, of 
their curiosity having become excited by the unusual 



ST. PAUL'S ROCKS. 71 

display of cotton canvas. They soon returned, how- 
ever, to their desolate kingdom, where they can 
enjoy their own laws without having them trampled 
on by the tyrant, man. 

Though we nearly always come near them when 
outward-bound, this is only the third time I have 
seen these rocks ; and I have heard their existence 
doubted by old navigators. The reason is probably 
because they are where the sun is usually obscured 
by clouds, making observations difficult or impossi- 
ble ; and the current is so uncertain that one, unless 
he sees them, can seldom tell how near he goes to 
them. Well, I can, without a sigh, leave such nights 
as the last out of my future voyages ; and, when the 
wind will allow me to do so, I am perfectly willing 
to leave them (the rocks) to the boobies. There is 
good water close to them ; but too deep, on the east 
side, to anchor : and one does not like to be left too 
near them in a calm, lest the current should carry 
the ship straight on to them. 

I have thus far heard nothing from our brother 
navigator of the phantom ship ; but perhaps he is not 
allowed to cruise here, where he might evade the law 
by anchoring west of the rocks. Possibly he has got 
worn out. According to the ancients, and some 
moderns, a disembodied spirit can stand a lot in the 
way of wear and tear; but at the rate at which this 
place wears on the spirits of mortals, I should judge 
that the most invulnerable of the host of Pluto would 
succumb in time. 

Two days later, and we have reached Lat. 3 degrees 



72 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

S. Having got out of the sailor's purgatory, I feel 
much as I suppose would a soul that had finished its 
term of probation, and had just been admitted to the 
upper realms. We had one more night of that em- 
bryo Inferno; and, though we did not have the pros- 
pect of running on to the rocks, as the night before, 
we had the weather worse, and pandemonium reigned 
during the first half of the night. 

Only for the promise that the Deluge should not 
recur, I should have feared we were in for it again ; 
as I am sure that forty days of such precipitation as 
we enjoyed, would leave nothing in sight except, per- 
haps, a Himalaya mountain. Fortunately there was 
a good lot of wind with it ; and, though too irregular 
for convenience, contrary to its usual custom at such 
times, it blew from the right direction. An upper 
topgallant-sail came to grief, but otherwise we were 
in condition to dress her up when the riot was over, 
which was the case soon after midnight. We then 
got a light breeze from S. E., which finally developed 
into the trades. We have now shot out of old Nep- 
tune's headquarters, and, after an exceptionally short 
period of that dolorous region, have as fine 
weather as this globe affords. Neptune failed to put 
in an appearance, though I have learned that a shady 
West Indiaman among my crew has not yet had his 
beard sacrificed on the equatorial altar. The weather 
was so bad that I should think his whole staff of 
barbers would strike, rather than operate at such an 
hour as that on which we crossed the imaginary 
circle. 



Chapter IX. 

Departure of the Haymaker. — "La Grippe." — The Celes- 
tial Cruiser. — Confederated Rivals. — The Astronomical 
Bomb. — Sharklets. 

The sun has started away on his annual tour of 
hay-making for the farmers of the North, the gap be- 
tween him and the zenith becoming wider each day, 
as the sextant, now directed toward the northern 
horizon, shows a smaller arc of meridian altitude. 
Soon we shall be far enough from him to begin to 
get the snow-squalls of the southern hemisphere. I 
seem to have lately arranged to get all the winters 
that are to be had. No sooner do I get fairly away 
from one, than I have to begin to get my furs ready 
for the next. I once went nine years without getting 
any (save one when I was ashore in Melbourne, Aus- 
tralia, where a little ice early in the morning was a 
curiosity), so I presume the Fates think it fair for 
me to make good the deficiency. 

I have now had three of them since " La Grippe " 
came into fashion, and have thus far figured as the 
man who hasn't had it ; but whether or not I shall 
be able to hold out in another port, is a question. I 
nearly succumbed in Auckland, but after the first 
few days of the "cold" that I had contracted there, 
the " Grip " fiends began to fall off ; and I managed 

(73) 



74 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

to successfully fight the few who still persisted, until 
I got out. Once in the open air, with no chills to 
detract from my strength, I could easily keep them 
at bay. In Dunedin they had received a consign- 
ment of the new malady, and nearly all had suffered; 
but my health, while there, was too good to give the 
most sanguine a chance. 

I hope it has got out of fashion in Cape Town, or 
that it has never been introduced into that seques- 
tered town. I have become somewhat weary of the 
battle now, and am afraid I shall be unable to resist 
the next siege, unless I am again fortunate enough to 
escape a suspicion of a chill. 

I don't wish the reader to think I am " doubting 
Mrs. Harris." I acknowledge the existence of this 
universal scourge, and hope that, if I should ever 
be so unfortunate as to contract it, I shall be found 
honest enough to admit it. Neither do I " denirc 
of" other people's right to claim it on the merest 
shadow of a pretext ; but, notwithstanding all the 
credit due to Russia for having endowed us with a 
new disease, as long as the breath of life is in me I 
shall insist that we had American "colds" before 
this fashionable epidemic was ever imported : and 
as long as my symptoms are exactly the same as 
they were in every one of those same American dis- 
orders that I have contracted since boyhood, I am 
not, if I can prevent it, going to allow myself to be 
bullied into giving it another name. There are a 
few things which are a special pride to me, and of 
which I am not going to allow myself to be lightly 



THE CELESTIAL CRUISER. 75 

robbed ; and that is one of them. Another one that 
I maintain against all comers, — though, when I was 
last in New York, it was yet more unfashionable 
than to deny the "Grip," — is that, if I should go 
into a drinking-saloon and spend every copper of 
my money for "rum," no live man can show me, to 
my satisfaction, that McKinley, or any other mem- 
ber of the Fifty-first Congress, had anything to do 
with the cause of my purse being empty and my fam- 
ily (if I should have one) hungry, the next morning. 

The Lesser Bear has disappeared, his hiding-place 
still being revealed by the "pointers " of his superior, 
who, though evidently suffering from a shot from 
the great hunter, struggles to regain his feet and 
try to find " sanctuary " below the horizon. Orion 
is getting hopelessly demoralized, keeping his feet 
only a few hours each day, and promises soon to 
fail to recover them at all, and to be at the mercy 
of the fell Taurus. 

Admiral Jason seems to be too intent on the dis- 
covery of that obsolete breed of sheep, to pay any 
attention to a Yankee rover. 

Though his ancient frigate is now one of our neigh- 
bors, he shows no sign of an inclination to exchange 
signals with us, but, ignoring the invention of red 
and green side-lights, carries the same old lamps 
with which he was fitted out by Ptolemy, they only 
having now and then been examined by Galileo, 
Herschel, and other opticians. 

My old acquaintances, the " Magellan clouds," 
have not yet turned up ; or are too near the hori- 



76 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

zon for their mild light to be seen. The Southern 
Cross now shines with its accustomed splendor, con- 
trasting with and bringing into prominence the dark 
spot beside it, so entirely free from nebul(E as to 
appear like a black cloud. When I was third mate 
of the A e M. M 1, the mate, who was an old- 
time specimen of the "Afloat and Ashore" type, 
pointed it out to me as a " Magellan cloud," and 
maintained steadily that it was the ordinary kind of 
cloud, composed of mist ; but refused to explain why 
it was never blown from its position. 

I did not, however, allow myself to get nervous lest 
it should cause a rain-storm, as he had before given 
some very peculiar astronomical theories ; among 
which was a refusal to believe in the rotundity of 
the moon, "when," as he said, "any one can see 
that it is flat." Owing, perhaps, to our dissimilarity 
of rank, it was in vain that I spent nearly all my 
day-watches below for a week, constructing, rigging, 
and painting artificial globes with which to disprove 
his theory. If I did not know my position, he did ; 
and wasn't going to allow a third mate's rudely con- 
structed astronomical apparatus to weaken the theo- 
ries of those two files above him in rank : and he 
steadily refused to admit it as evidence. 

This was the most heartless oppression to which an 
amateur astronomer could be subjected ; and caused 
me to regret a former voyage, when the mate found 
that the best way to figure as a wise man was to 
keep his astronomical light hidden under a bushel. 

When I was first made third mate, I was put under 



CONFEDERATED RIVALS. 11 

a second mate whose years in the service of Neptune 
were even less than mine. Consequently the rivalry 
between us was almost ferocious ; and he who left a 
gasket hanging, had the humiliation of hearing him 
of the other watch roaring in stentorian tones for it 
to be made up. 

This state of things lasted the entire length of the 
first voyage ; but when a new mate was shipped for 
the next, we learned that life could be made a sufB- 
cient burden without the aid of our little contribu- 
tion, and we found it advantageous to join our forces 
against the common enemy. As we early learned 
that his object was not discipline, but purely oppres- 
sion, we were not very conscientious about the means 
employed to head him off. 

The captain, who was quite an astronomer, was 
then giving me assistance in my researches, by 
pointing out to me the different constellations, dur- 
ing the "dog-watches." The mate's knowledge of 
astronomy was probably limited to a very superficial 
acquaintance with the ways of the sun ; but of course 
it would be most disastrous to good order and mari- 
time discipline to become a pupil in a form lower 
than mine. He therefore found it best to maintain 
golden silence, and rank as a graduate. 

One morning I noticed that it was beginning to 
be daylight an hour earlier than usual ; and, ever on 
the alert to forestall the enemy, commenced to 
look for the cause, that I might defend my ally if 
necessary. To suspect the second mate of moving 
the clock from mercenary motives, to cheat the other 



78 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

watch, was not to be thought of in one whom I had 
always thought a "foeman worthy of my steel," even 
before oppression had necessitated confederation ; 
and now, when I should come in for a share of the 
loss, it was utterly impossible : besides, that would be 
to make the clock fast, and it was slow. It was pos- 
sible that it had lost an hour, but not probable ; and 
the mate was not the man to search for innocent 
causes. 

It suddenly struck me that if one should get 
asleep on watch, and fail to wake in season to "make 
eight bells " at the right time, to move the clock 
back would be the only chance to avoid a confession ; 
and the thought of a confession to one whose sole 
interest in life appeared to be to make life a burden 
to his subordinates, was not to be entertained, 

I had but just finished this doubtful hypothesis, 
when the mate noticed the approaching light and 
bore down on me with a rush, before I had time to 
perfect a scheme for averting suspicion from my 
sleeping confederate. 

" How 's it light so early .^ " he asked, gruffly. 

" Sir } " — to gain time. 

" Why 's it daylight before three o'clock ? " 

"Is it earlier than usual.?" I ask, innocently, try- 
ing to feign surprise. 

" Don't you know d — d well it is } " 

What was to be done ? At any moment he might 
drop on to a solution resembling mine, and — I dared 
not contemplate the result. Suddenly I thought of 



THE ASTRONOMICAL BOMB. 79 

astronomy. I would get beyond his depth, and have 
him where he would not dare throw stones. 

"I — I believe it is," I answered. "A — let's see. 
Oh, yes ; of course. Why ! It's the very day ! " 

"What day.? " he roared. 

"Well, I haven't looked it up lately, but the cap'n 
can tell you all about it; it's what's called — the 
prccessioii of the cqrdnoxesy 

That was all. If he was ever to know what those 
awful words meant, I knew it would be from no one 
who knew me that he would learn it ; and I was 
morally certain that in five minutes, unless he took 
the precaution to make a memorandum, they would 
be hopelessly lost to him, probably forever. 

I was rather aghast myself, when I learned that I 
had accounted for the sudden addition of an hour to 
the length of the day, by laying it to one of the 
slowest evolutions astronomy shows ; but this was 
all the better, as being less likely to come under the 
mate's notice. 

Of course it would have been contrary to the Jaws 
of chivalry for me to have spoken to the second 
mate about it, as I must not know if he really did 
make a slip ; and it looked so probable, that I did not 
dare risk it, so had to enjoy the victory as best I could 
without help. The clock was all right by the noon 
observation, and the cook was late with his break- 
fast ; and as the second mate held the morning watch 
— but these are but circumstances, which proverb- 
ially prove nothing. If my morning-watch below was 
short, the first watch was long ; so I was no loser. 



80 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

The Mother Gary's chickens follow us just the 
same, entirely indifferent to whether the name of the 
ocean is North or South Atlantic. Later, however, 
they will discover that they are out of their latitude, 
and begin to haul off and look for a homeward- 
bounder. 

I am told that a school of bonita have been under 
the bow, but as my crew had not learned that I never 
allow a fish to escape if I can hinder him, they were 
not reported to me, but to the cook instead ; and, 
they being neither cat-fish, eels, nor shrimps, of 
course he failed to secure any. I saw a shark, but 
as he was not over eight feet long it is of very little 
use to trouble the reader with him. 

For years I have pined for a view of the big shark 
of fiction, history, and science. I can never make 
mine over-run ten feet, and rarely eight ; the usual 
size being six or seven. 

The historical, scientific, and fictitious shark also 
swims with great velocity, cruising round and round 
a ship when she is sailing at full speed, and being 
always ready to dart on any person or thing that 
falls overboard. My shark never aspires to follow a 
ship going over three knots, and seldom over one or 
two ; and when a hook is baited and thrown to him, 
he swims up to it lazily, turns on to his side or back, 
in the most awkward manner, to get it into his 
mouth, and when he is hooked, though his strength 
is prodigious when he docs struggle, seems to be 
almost too lazy to do so. 

The dorsal fins of the sqnalidoe of science, his- 



SHARKLE TS. 8 1 

tory, and romance cleave through the water with 
the rapidity of lightning", while my dorsal fin is to be 
seen a few inches above the surface of the water, 
only now and then betraying its identity by a slight 
side motion ; and when its owner starts to change his 
position, it almost invariably disappears beneath the 
surface, perhaps to come up again when a new posi- 
tion is taken up. 

Again I am not throwing suspicion on the 
existence of any one named Harris. My knowledge 
of sharks is very superficial ; I probably not having 
seen a hundred of them during my life-time. But as 
it is the general opinion that we are always sur- 
rounded by myriads of them, I merely wish to give 
the impression that that is much overdrawn. The 
theory that they are very swiftly swimming fish 
seems to be well authenticated, and may be true 
enough when they try ; but my experience seems to 
suggest that, like the experiment of climbing a tree 
being attempted by a cow, cases of the trial are very 
rare. If, as seems to be well backed by authority, 
they range in length from twelve to thirty seven feet, 
I should like to know why all I have seen are such 
mere minnows } And if, as we learn from the same 
authority, they "outstrip the swiftest ship," they 
must commence the race when I am asleep, and 
when I get on deck the ship is " out of it," 



CHAPTER X. 

The Record Broken. — The Head-wind Ship. — The Light- 
wind Ship. — The " Onward " for Fair Winds and Tempests. 

We have now crossed the eighth parallel of south, 
latitude, twenty-seven days at sea, having passed St. 
Roque eighty miles off shore ; and I must congratu- 
late the reader on having sailed with the Onward 
on the voyage on which she has beaten her own 
record ; which is generally acknowledged to be a 
pretty difficult feat for a sailing vessel of her class to 
perform. She has been racing desperately with two 
of her former tracks on my chart, and at last has 
beaten them both. One of them is her track when 
she went around the world in one hundred and sev- 
enty sailing days, — New York to Wellington, N. Z., 
92, — Auckland, 3, — New York, 75 ; on which voyage 
she lacked fifty miles of this latitude, when twen- 
ty-seven days out. If we add the passage from Bos- 
ton to New York when she came around to load for 
Wellington, — thirty-three hours, — it is a combina- 
tion of good passages that will rarely be put together 
on one voyage. 

The other is her track when she went from Port- 
land to Bahia Blanca (close to Patagonia), 47 — Bar- 
badoes, 29 — Boston, 12; total, 88 days: when she 

CS3J 



THE HE AD- WIND SHIP. 83 

was twenty-eight days to this position. These pas- 
sages are not all extraordinarily quick ones, taken 
separately ; but put together in a voyage, they are 
remarkable. 

In this unromantic age, when nearly everything 
that occurs is readily traced by the prosaic laws of 
cause and effect, and when there is no place allowed 
to 

" The weird sisters, hand in hand, 
Posters of the sea and land," 

how can one account for the fact that some ships 
nearly always have the wind in the right direction, 
while others seem fated to have it usually ahead ; 
that some get continuous storms where the wind 
should usually be light while others nearly always have 
a moderate breeze, even where it should be stormy ; 
and that some navigators seem to be under the 
spell, — 

" Though his bark cannot be lost, 
Yet she shall be tempest-tossed," — 

while others appear to revel in fine weather nearly 
all their lives, and yet, every year or two, lay a ves- 
sel's bones on some desolate reef and come home 
afoot. 

One of my early floating homes, in which I sailed 
as third, second, and first mate, and which could put 
in six months on a passage without a scruple, was 
scarcely ever known to have a fair wind, except 
where it was impossible to get any other kind ; and 
then it managed generally to get where it would head 
her off a little, and keep her pounding at a head sea, 



84 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

or die out calm : in which case she would iiisually 
lose all steerage way, and turn deliberately around 
till her head was near the opposite point of the com- 
pass. The captain used to say that she was never 
satisfied, except when looking back to see where she 
had come from. 

The first passage 1 sailed in her, it was just two 
hundred days from the time she left the wharf in 
Baltimore, till she arrived in San Francisco ; a sister 
ship of nearly the same model, which left about the 
same time (and the captain of which was a perfect 
"lamb" in comparison with ours), having discharged, 
loaded, and sailed for Europe, some weeks before we 
arrived. 

As it was the first voyage during v/hich I crossed 
the equator ; and as the captain, whose reputation for 
amiability had not attracted me so much as the 
hope of promotion, and who probably saw in me an 
"unlicked" future "chief," made the weather about 
as warm for me as any in which third mate ever rev- 
eled ; and as our experience off the " Stormy Cape " 
would add a charm to a dime novel, that passage 
stands out alone in my past life as its most memora- 
ble period. 

Another ship I was mate of for two and a half 
years, was afflicted with such horribly fine weather 
that she rarely got beyond five knots, though capa- 
ble of going at least twice as fast. The captain used 
to account for this by explaining that when she was 
new, the former captain's sisters were going to sail 
with him ; and that just before they sailed, their 



THE LIGHT- WIND SHIP. 85 

clergyman prayed that they might have fine weather : 
since which the ship had never had a breeze. 

I know that the first captain's sisters did sail with 
him, and that my captain sailed with them as mate ; 
but I would not like to vouch for the rest, as the 
cap'n was one who did not like to sacrifice a joke at 
the altar of truth. I have had him, in San Francisco, 
call on me to prove that an iceberg two hundred 
and fifty feet high, which we had seen off Cape Horn, 
had painted on it some such heraldic device as the 
following words and letters : — 

" The Chronicle Has T-e La — st Cir — a — on — The 
— ic Coast." The missing letters having probably 
been melted off since getting into the comparatively 
warm weather off the Cape. 

If the science of Astrology were practiced now, it 
could probably be ascertained that when the Onward' s 
keel was laid, the planets were all in a rush for their 
perihelions, and perhaps with a comet or two thrown 
in ; as she nearly always gets right along, while some 
other vessels on the same voyage, and at the same 
time, are either hopelessly becalmed or beating des- 
perately against adverse winds. 

She has sailed from Philadelphia to New Orleans 
in twelve days, and the wind hauled at every turning- 
point, just the same as I would have caused it to do, 
had I been given the management of it ; and, as far 
as I could learn, it followed her right along, no one 
else getting any 'of it. She was loaded hopelessly 
deep for making a quick passage, and after getting 
to sea shifted cargo so that I couldn't carry much 



86 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

sail till we got her straightened up. When I was in 
the unlucky ship mentioned above, we sailed from 
Gefle, Sweden, down the Gulf of Bothnia and the 
Baltic Sea, through the Cattegat and Skager Rack, 
down the North Sea, through the Strait of Dover, 
and down the English Channel to the Lizard Point 
(about the same number of courses as the New 
Orleans voyage), and the wind hauled ahead at every 
turn, as faithfully as it did fair for the Onward ; 
and we "beat" the whole distance. 

She (the Omvard) once sailed from Bangkok, 
Siam, to Hong Kong, China, in fifteen days, at a sea- 
son when there was a belt of the China Sea where 
no one could hope for a breeze. When the wind 
died out, it left her in a stream that took her along 
from fifty to seventy miles per day, until she reached 
where the new monsoon had set in. She passed 
within fifty miles of a ship which had been becalmed 
longer than we had been on the passage, and the 
captain told me subsequently that he did not get a 
mile of current. 

She sailed from Hong Kong for Honolulu, Ha- 
waian Islands, during the N. E. monsoon, and I had 
told my charterer that she would do it in forty-five 
days ; allowing ten for getting out of the monsoon, and 
thirty-five to make the remainder, expecting to run 
across the Pacific in from 35 degrees to 45 degrees of 
latitude. I had a crew of Fijian savages whom I had 
shipped as Manilla men, and when the wind blew they 
did not dare go aloft. When nine days out, we got 
a heavy gale which left her in such condition that it 



THE FAIR- WIND AND TEMPEST SHIP. 87 

took ten more days to get her again under full sail. 
When we were out of the monsoon, it had been 
twenty-two days instead of the ten which I had an- 
ticipated. 

In Lat. 25 degrees, instead of about 35 degrees as I 
expected, we got a strong westerly wind, and, telling 
the mate that it looked like one of the OmvarcTs 
dispensations, and that it was her only chance at that 
late hour, I kept her off and let her go, she making 
as nice a run in that low latitude as she ever did in 
a high one ; and on the evening of the forty-fifth day 
we hove her to on the coast of Oahu to wait for day- 
light to run in. Our maximum latitude was about 
34 degrees instead of 45 degrees, as I had intended, 
and my Chinese consignee said she came "all the same 
steamboat." A ship had just been in there after 
provisions, eighty-four days from Hong Kong for Vic- 
toria, B. C, having been up in Lat, 50 degrees, where 
westerly winds are thought to be almost inevitable, 
and she had had a succession of easterly gales instead. 

If there is any reward for submission, in taking 
cheerfully what is given and making the best of it, per- 
haps she gets some favors for that. She never calls 
a wind a head one if at all steady, unless there is 
land in the way, but just chooses the tack that ap- 
pears the best and pushes steadily on in search of 
better weather, even though she go where no keel 
save that of the explorer and whaler has ever pre- 
ceded her ; and, in consequence, my charts show 
eccentricities in the way of tracks which might well 



88 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

cause an old navigator, who had never tried it, to 
tremble for the length of the voyage. 

A long experience has taught me that wherever 
she carries me, she will bring me to the winning-post 
in good season ; and I sailed her eight years before 
she lay in port with a ship that had beaten her on 
the passage (excepting once, a passage of only five 
hundred miles, where she missed the exceptional 
" Norther " which some got, and had to " beat "). 
If any one asks me what track I am going to take, I 
can only refer him to her and vEolus, and promise 
him a chance to examine my chart when we meet 
again. 

Though I never had a wife who munched chest- 
nuts to offend any midnight hags, I seem to come 
in largely for the malediction under which the "mas- 
ter o' the Tiger" labored, and the Ofiward seems to 
get along at about the right time to get all the fun 
there is in the tempest line ; but though the prospect 
has sometimes looked dull for her, I have always 
managed to bring her out right side up, though occa- 
sionally with my " pent-house lids " a trifle heavy in 
consequence of lack of sleep. 



CHAPTER XI. 

The Calm-belt of Capricorn, — All Hemp Canvas. — Italian 
Pride. — Nautical Superstition. — The Australian Bush. — 
Convicts. — Black-boys. — Nocturnal Warblers. — Unsuspected 
Danger. 

The " calm-belt of Capricorn," another of the 
traps laid by Providence for testing the placidity of 
navigators, has now got us in its embrace ; the S. E. 
trades having left us at the twenty-second parallel. 
Although the sextant shows but 5 1 degrees meridian 
altitude, the sun is up to his old habits of leaving his 
fiercest rays behind him, and we have the hottest 
day we have had since sailing, with the thermometer 
at 95 degrees, and no wind to temper it except the 
little that fans from the sails. 

Have seen a few samples of the eternal British 
steamer, and some clouds of European hemp canvas ; 
but not a yard of American cotton, since we left 
Long Island Sound. We have another track to cross 
in a few days, and we may. see the white wings of 
some forlorn Yankee who couldn't get a coal or lum- 
ber freight on the Pacific coast, and has decided to 
try to earn the salt with which his beef is pickled, 
by joining the subsidized or free-ship fleets of Eu- 
rope in the work of supplying John Bull with wheat. 

We have crossed the Cape Horn track on three 

C89j 



90 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

successive outward voyages, seeing nothing but 
hemp ; but as I know there are a few of my old Cal- 
ifornia grain fleet still afloat, and as the waste paper 
which has lately been floating around in the halls of 
Congress caused a few eccentric builders to lay a 
keel on the precarious basis of hope, it seems to be 
about time for the law of chances to decree that we 
should see one. 

There will be another track to cross before we 
arrive, — the one from the Cape of Good Hope home- 
ward ; and as I have a faint memory of having seen 
the report of some lonely American having sailed for 
Calcutta, and as a few still make their way into the 
China Sea, I shall keep a bright lookout for one of 
them, but the chances are but dim of my vigil being 
rewarded. 

I should like to speak something that has recently 
sailed, in order to learn whether or not Italy has 
retaliated for the loss of a few cut-throats by bom- 
barding our ancient and time-honored coast defences. 
Perhaps, if they let the Secretary of the Navy know 
on what part they intend to commence, and we can 
induce a few foreign sailors to run away from their 
ships and help to man the new war-ship, Maine (if 
that germ of a fighting navy can be got ready), we 
may be able to hold the valiant descendants of Mac- 
chiavelli at bay. I believe they are better at manip- 
ulating a secret vendetta than at open warfare. 

I do not wish it to be thought that I am defending 
the New Orleans lynchers, because no American de- 
plores the reputation we have for that sort of thing 



. ITALIAN PRIDE. 91 

more than I do ; but I must confess that I feel the 
disgrace to ourselves, more than I feel sympathy for 
the wretches who suffered. I have not carefully 
read the circumstances which led to the lynching, 
but I got the idea that the mob which committed 
it was the kind which, on the frontier, would be 
deemed respectable ; without which life would often 
be a difBculty to peaceable citizens : and when it 
comes to being called on to believe in the guilt of 
people who are often proud of their reputation for 
throat-cutting, it is as easy as to believe that hydro- 
phobia is the result of the bite of a mad dog ; and if 
they zvere guilty, as seems highly probable, I feel 
less sorrow for their "taking off," than for the re- 
moval of the demented canine. 

I once thought the unenviable reputation Italians 
have, to be largely imaginary ; but a few years ago 
I had direct dealings with some of them, which re- 
sulted in my paying more attention to the subject : 
and I have decided that there is at least a class of 
them, whose pride in their reputation for committing 
murder is as genuine as the Englishman's for his 
proficiency in athletics, or the Texan cow-boy's for 
expertness in getting "the drop." 

I shipped some of them in Lisbon, Portugal, as 
sailors ; and when one of them ran away with a 
month's advance-pay, I had him arrested and taken 
to the American consul's ofifice, for that officer to 
order him put on board. He had been fairly 
shipped, by the consul, for the voyage, and had no 
means of refunding the advance-pay he had re- 



92 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

ceived ; so the case was perfectly clear, and the 
consul told him he must go on board. He then 
commenced a wild pantomime to illustrate the fact 
that if he were put on board, he would make it his 
first care to deprive me of the fluid on which I 
largely depend for existence ; and accompanied it 
with loud and significant assertions that he was "an 
Italian." 

I am sure I never saw an Englishman who felt 
more national pride in the exploits of " The Six 
Hundred " at Balaclava, or a New Englander who 
showed more complacency at thoughts of Lexington 
or Bunker Hill, than he displayed when he struck 
his chest and said, tragically : 

" I am an Italian ! You sabe, Capitan .? Italian 
plenty " 

He would then draw his finger significantly across 
his throat, to illustrate what he appeared to think 
too sacred for words, and finish with the cautionary 
declaration : 

" More better iox yoit, Capitan ! Sabe .-* For you^ 
you leave me on shore." 

The spectators were more or less horrified, and 
advised me to leave him behind ; and even the con- 
sul seemed a little alarmed for my safety : but as we 
have to learn, before we can run a ship, to hold 
threats at a lower figure than four pounds sterling 
each, I had him sent on board, the policemen first 
treating him to several drinks, perhaps in the fear 
that he would otherwise commence his murderous 
work on them. 



NAUTICAL SUPERSTITION. 93 

I was not alarmed lest this man should carry out 
his threats, but I noticed he made the point that he 
was an Italian, and seemed to take it for granted 
that we would understand by that that he was an 
expert at assassination ; and though I am a large be- 
liever in the adage about barking dogs, I am very 
suspicious of people who think it an honorable ex- 
ploit. 

I cannot believe that so many of them as were 
lynched in New Orleans had been accused of murder 
without at least some of them being guilty ; and the 
principal sorrow I feel about the affair, is the defi- 
ciency in many of our courts which appears some- 
times to make it necessary for the people to resort to 
such barbarous methods to prevent the miscarriage 
of justice. Our laws appear to be very chivalrous 
about defending murderers, and I think it very com- 
mendatory, as far as is necessary to determine 
whether or not they are guilty ; but is it not carrying 
chivalry to an alarming extent, when the best law- 
yers in the country lie awake nights to study up 
a means of clearing by a mere quibble, or an unfore- 
seen defect in a law, a wretch whom every one 
knows to be guilty, and who has been proved so by 
all the upright methods of trial known .'' 

A few Mother Gary's chickens still stick to 
the wreck, and there are a few stranger-birds with 
whom I am unacquainted. They are probably on a 
visit from the Island of Trinidad, about a hundred 
miles distant. I am in hopes a shark will soon turn 
up, and if one does, I shall try hard to capture him ; 



94 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

it having been the opinion of one of my old com- 
manders that to catch one of those voracious man- 
eaters is an infallible precursor of a fair wind. I 
could never see any reason for it, but as there is no 
proof to the contrary, and as there is a natural enmity 
between a shark and a sailor which makes it very 
easy for us to put them to inconvenience whenever 
we can, I make it a point to earn the reward if there 
is one. I cannot get up the enthusiasm he used to 
show, because my faith in the charm is very mild ; 
and I prefer a fish that is a better ornament to a 
table. 

He would see me pull in codfish, when we chanced 
to get a calm on a bank, without a tremor of excite- 
ment ; but if a shark came along and every one did 
not step out quickly to get the gear ready, he was 
more indignant than at an utter failure in working 
ship. After the excitement was over he would say, 
apologetically, that he hoped he was not getting to 
be superstitious ; but would be just as anxious to get 
the next one. We always got a breeze afterward ; 
but as the present calm is the only one I have met 
that has not ended, and as we have not always 
caught a shark, it is hard to estimate how much the 
influence is. 

Perhaps most of us have a little weakness in the 
way of superstition. I am sure that a new moon 
always looks better over my right than my left 
shoulder, and when it comes to a nocturnal stroll in 
a cemetery, which some claim to enjoy, I confess that 
I much prefer a boulevard ; but a deep forest is 



THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH.— CONVICTS. 95 

preferable to either, as one can easily people it, in 
imagination, with much more interesting company 
than I, as a stranger, usually find in the latter, and 
with that which is more agreeable, in my estimation, 
than what always seems to me to be lurking behind 
the tombstones of the former. 

When I loaded my vessel in Western Australia, in 
the wild region mentioned in a former chapter, as the 
nearest town was seventy-five miles distant, the 
nearest "station" five miles, and my business- 
office four ; as the country was nearly all forest, and 
as I did most of my travelling in the night, I had an 
opportunity to enjoy the company of dryads, wood- 
spooks, and fairies, which the navigator rarely finds. 
I think there is little in this world that suits me 
better than to be where one feels just sufficiently 
nervous to give an interest and a relish to life. 

As there were many convicts and ex-convicts 
among the population, the reader might suppose that 
when my nerves got strung a little beyond their usual 
tension they were responsible. Not so. The con- 
vict of Australia appears usually to be about as 
harmless as his fellow-bushranger, the kangaroo. 
He has an advantage over those we know of in Sing 
Sing and other such resorts in the United States, 
and may never have cut his neighbor's throat, or 
even robbed a bank or corrupted a New York alder- 
man. There are a lot of chances that he has only 
strayed too far with his gun ; been caught at what 
we think the harmless amusement of setting a rabbit- 
snare ; detected in the mild offense of "hooking" 



96 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

apples, watermelons, or chestnuts ; surprised at the 
nefarious practice of dropping a bent pin into the 
sacred waters of a "preserved" trout stream; or 
convicted of the reprehensible crime of robbing 
bird's nests. 

Even those of a darker shade seem to be aware 
that they are within reach of that gigantic net, the 
British law, which, though its meshes are so small 
that I think it somewhat harsh, extends over every 
inch of ground ( save one small colony ) that I have 
seen under the British flag, — whether metropolis, 
hamlet, wilderness, or desert, — and is enforced with a 
searching pertinacity that is one of the rarest jewels 
of the British crown. 

No ; my great source of nervousness was what are 
known to the people of that part of the world as 
"black-boys :" and these are simply inanimate trunks, 
resembling those of trees sawn off to average about 
the height of a good-sized giant, blackened by the 
bush-fires to which they are as impervious as sala- 
manders, and surmounted by a tuft of a kind of grass 
resembling bulrushes. 

When I came suddenly upon an army of these, I 
couldn't resist the fancy that they had just sprung up 
at the summons of some weird, antipodal Roderick 
Dhu, and were only awaiting the beck of their dark 
chieftain, to bid me " stand " and declare my " name 
and purpose." It took but a very small flight of 
imagination to change the grassy tufts into the 
plumes of "clansmen stern." 

An unearthly chorus produced by a kind of toad 



NOCTURNAL WARBLERS. 97 

that lives there, and which I have never heard else- 
where, is a good help toward uncanny thoughts. I 
believe they live in holes in the earth, and only 
"sing" at certain seasons. I had been there some 
days before they commenced, and when they got 
fairly started the air was constantly full of their 
mournful notes whenever it was dark. When I first 
heard them it never occurred to me that it was any 
thing near me, but thought a herd of cattle a mile 
or two away had got lost or were moaning because 
they could not find their calves. When I had ad- 
vanced a rod or two and heard it in the opposite 
direction, I thought I must be in the kingdom of 
Titania and Oberon. 

A policeman, who acted as guardian to the tick- 
et-of-leave men, lived across a small lake about a 
quarter of a mile from me, and as he was the only 
authority short of the stations, I rode over to him 
to get an explanation. I was disappointed when I 
learned that the mystery was so easily cleared up ; 
but even then it added a great charm to a black-boy 
swamp by moonlight, and I revelled in an Arcadia of 
"artificial sprites " which Prospero might envy. 

There was a cattle-station about five miles distant, 
where I used to forage for the twenty men who were 
at work loading my ship and who had to remain on 
board all the time, as she lay about two miles from 
shore, and my crew were ruminating over their un- 
fortunate misconstruction of maritime law, in a jail 
seventy-five miles distant. As the loading was very 
difficult, I remained on board most of thQ time dur- 



98 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

ing the day, usually getting ashore from one to three 
hours after dark ; when I would mount my horse and 
ride to the office, the station, or both, according to 
the situation on board. 

Something over a mile from the station, which 
was very appropriately called " Deep Dean," a bridle- 
path wound around the face of a circular cliff, and 
finally led into a thick forest on what seemed, in the 
darkness, a plain of the realm of Pluto, below. It 
reminded me of a romance I read when a boy, in 
which was described a place something like it, called 
"The Devil's Punch-bowl." Between this, the army 
of black-boys at the foot of the cliff, a kind of mush- 
room-like fungus that grew in the woods and shone 
with a phosphorescent light, and the awful din of those 
impossible batrachia, I was as completely meta- 
morphosed into an "ass" as ever was the weaver 
Bottom ; and should not have been much surprised 
to have met Caliban and his whole host of tormentors. 

I was usually "weel mounted," but sometimes I 
was on foot; in which case there was not even a 
horse to remind me of the mr.terial world. I en^ 
joyed this for more than two months, and, after I 
got away, learned that I had been in the greatest 
"fool's paradise" that had ever fallen to my lot. 

Right near the very spot where I was in the habit 
of enjoying the climax of my unearthly fancies, 
where the sudden thump, thump, thum.p of a kanga- 
roo-rat bounding through the underbrush and across 
the path had one night startled me in the most deli- 
cious manner, lurking behind a bulwark of trees 



UNSUSPECTED DANGER. 99 

which served as a screen to keep me in blissful igno- 
rance of the dread presence, was — what ? A red- 
handed convict thirsting for my gore? A pack of 
native dogs waiting to tear me limb from limb ? No. 
What, then ? A Chinaman's grave! 

When I got to Hong Kong, I met the master of a 
ship which had loaded ahead of me ; and he told me 
that his Chinese cook had been taken sick, had been 
sent to Deep Dean to be cared for, and while there 
had died. Having been in blissful ignorance that 
death had ever invaded that delightful place, I had 
never located a cemetery ; so, being suspicious that 
a Chinaman wouldn't, in the absence of compatriots, 
enjoy a VQry long post-viortcni journey, I asked where 
he had been buried : and the answer proved beyond 
a doubt the wisdom of the adage, "Where ignorance 
is bhss," etc. 

I have been mate of a ship with four hundred and 
twenty Chinese passengers on board, and have often 
done police duty when a deckful of them were en- 
gaged in their " see-a-head-hit-it " fights ; but never 
did those celestial beings cause me a moment's un- 
easiness, until since I learned that this dead one had 
invaded the solitary depths of that Australian forest. 
If I should ever go there again, by what unknown 
path can I approach this station, which cannot be 
left out of the programme without a loss that it will 
be hard to replace .-' 

I once thought it a duty I owed myself to let the 
world believe that, if I had a preference at all, dead 
people enjoyed, in my estimation, an advantage over 



100 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

living ones ; but a few years ago my views on the 
subject became suddenly changed, and as some peo- 
ple seem to think that one must be anxious to invade 
a tomb at midnight or yield all pretension to valor, I 
mention the fact to help those who prefer to stay 
outside with me. I asked the proprietor of a hotel 
to put me into a different room ; and as he pushed 
me a little hard for a reason, and I supposed he 
guessed it, I confessed that I preferred one less his- 
torical. I felt about as small " as they make 'em," 
until he said it was live people he feared. This 
braced me up amazingly, and I immediately told him 
to revel in the company of the harmless ones, and to 
make it a point to surround me with the objectiona- 
ble kind whenever opportunity offered. Since then 
I have congratulated myself upon my advantage over 
him in having my principal fears nearly all buried in 
the church-yards, and not being forced to live with 
them every day. 

I do not wish the reader to suppose that I am 
much of a believer in the nocturnal wanderings of 
the departed, but belief has no place when my imag- 
ination gets under weigh, and when the circumstances 
are right I can conjure up every ghost that ever 
revisited earth, from the royal one of Denmark down 
to the humblest " spook " that ever haunted Irish 
cabin; and if ever spirit may be expected to "walk 
the night," and particularly to have a watchful solici- 
tude for his earthly remains, it should be that of a 
Chinaman whose bones are hopelessly alienatedfrom 
his native heath. 



Chapter XII. 

Our "Phantom" Cruising-ground. — The White Squall. — 
The Meteorological Landsman. — " Mal de Mer " Defeated.— 
Good Weather and Icebergs. 

Excepting between the Calms of Capricorn, from 
which we escaped on the second day, and the thir- 
tieth parallel — a spot where the Onward' s record 
has suffered sadly, where impatience has often been 
my mildest sin, and which, if we ever figure together 
as phantoms, will doubtless be our cruising-ground, 
— we have made good time since I wrote last ; and 
we are now — forty-six days out — east of the prime 
meridian, which we crossed near the thirty-sixth par- 
allel. If she doesn't meet with some serious reverse 
near the end, this passage will be one of her best ; 
as it now looks likely to end in about fifty days. 

I intended to make the Tristan da Cunha Islands, 
in order to learn whether or not my chronometer is 
running right ; but a squall we got gave us suffi- 
cient employment without looking for land, and we 
passed fifty miles north of them. This was a fairly 
good sample of what is called a "white squall," there 
having been but very little to indicate its approach. 
" White squalls " are a kind rarely met, and they 
usually find one unprepared for them. When this 
one struck, we were at work taking in the light 

(101) 



102 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

sails; but we were glad to abandon "system," and 
let go nearly any rope to which we could get. She 
"broached to," and while the second mate helped 
the man put the wheel up, the mate and I managed 
to get the after sails pretty well down, to allow her 
to pay off as well as to save them. 

The sailors, as usual in the absence of deliberate 
orders, were "galleyed," and did nothing; but some 
one got forward, and proved himself a very fiend at 
letting go, even the fore-topsail sheets and jib hal- 
liards failing to escape him. These are only to be 
let go as a last resort, when there is danger of the 
ship going on her beam-ends ; those sails being nec- 
essary to help her pay off. I tried to learn who did 
it ; but as it had already transpired that it was a bad 
move, I failed. My chief object in asking was to 
know who besides my officers could do more, at such 
a time, than stare and look stupid. 

I have a pretty good idea now who let them go, as 
the topsail halliards were let go too ; and since the 
steward has learned that tJiat was a praiseworthy act, 
he has taken the credit of it, but knows nothing 
about the sheets. Any one who has read of Topsy, 
and knows who "stole de ribbon but didn't stole de 
glove," doesn't need to study much longer to see how 
the sheets came to be gone. Though it cost us a 
lower topsail which would otherwise probably have 
stood the strain, yet it is so unusual to have anytJiing 
done when there is too much noise to allow orders to 
be heard, that I don't feel inclined to hold a court- 
martial to get the culprit convicted ; but hope that 



THE METEOROLOGICAL LANDSMAN. 103 

his zeal will be better directed next time. It is so 
seldom that those who are not called get on deck, 
that I would almost fall in love with any one who 
should, even if he got the axe out to cut away the 
masts. With a very few exceptions I have generally 
seen those whose place is not on deck keep as snug 
as possible at such times. 

One notable exception, and one which this 
affair recalled to my mind was an old landsman who, 
once when I was mate, sailed around Cape Horn with 
us as carpenter. He perhaps didn't make the voyage 
with us solely for the purpose of seeing a white 
squall, but having probably read of them, and being 
at sea, he had set his heart on seeing one ; and though 
he was nearly seventy years old, we never had the 
weather so bad, "blow high — blow low," but that 
he would be wading about decks consulting whom- 
soever he could get hold of, and trying to learn 
whether or not he might add one of those extraor- 
dinary meteorological eccentricities to his stock of 
lore with which to regale ale-house companions over 
future pints of " 'alf and 'alf." 

Off the Rio de la Plata, we got a "pampero ; " and 
when it first commenced, it came out with a burst, 
with a squall as black as night, accompanied with 
lightning, thunder, rain, and hail. He being a lands- 
man as well as carpenter, no one expected him to be 
on deck, and one would have supposed he would be 
stowed as low as he could get, and perhaps telling 
his beads or thinking over his sins. Not a bit of it ! 
Right in the very worst of the hubbub, as though 



104 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

when he should succeed in getting his heart's desire 
he meant to enjoy the whole of it while it was in 
operation and after he had become assured of its 
identity, he cam.e along the deck as I was letting go 
the main-topsail halliards, bare-headed, the hailstones 
pelting him unmercifully, his gray hair streaming in 
the pitiless wind like that of a nautical King Lear, 
and just when I had got ready to listen to a tale of 
horror about some monstrous sea that had broken in 
his room-door, invaded his berth, and mercilessly 
driven him forth into the fearful din about decks, he 
came close up to me, got his lips as near as possible 
to my ear, and in a quavering voice shouted : 

" Mr. ! Is this a white squall ? " 

Poor man ! He got ashore without seeing one 
(all we had being so black that no one ventured to 
"set one up" for him), and I think I have not seen 
one since ; so, when we were trying to get some of 
the after sail in and get her off, I immediately 
thought of the old carpenter, and the joy it would 
have given his ancient soul to have this opportunity 
to witness the coveted phenomenon. 

The most extraordinary thing about a ship is the 
wonderfully small amount of damage she often gets, 
even when to the experienced eye of the navigator 
it looks as though he ought to be thankful to find 
even one mast left on end as a basis for a jury-rig. 
To look aloft and see every sail from deck to truck 
banging as though the F'uries had broken out of the 
Infernal Regions and taken command of the 
elements ; the yards, their lifts and braces all slack 



"MAL DE MER" DEFEATED. 105 

since the halliards have been let go, swinging vio- 
lently back and forth, " cockbilling " at different 
angles, and running part-way up and down the masts 
at every roll of the ship ; some sails split and snap- 
ping like the report of musketry, strips and frag- 
ments of torn canvas whirling through the air at 
every crack ; the air so full of hailstones, and so 
many things to look at at once, that one cannot 
stop to note accurately what sails are split and what 
partially or wholly clewed up, but gets a general idea 
that nothing is left whole ; and then, when it is all 
over, to learn that the whole damage is two sails split 
and the foremast cap-band broken, — makes one ask 
himself " Can such things be ? " 

We have got everything right now, having bent 
other sails, and improvised a cap with blocks of wood, 
chains, and wedges. I put in a few hours aloft, for 
the first time since we sprung a mast seven or eight 
years ago, and didn't get any sea-sick ; the first time 
I have escaped when staying up long with a big sea 
on, since the days when I lived aloft a good part of 
the time : and even then I had a little of it when I 
first went up after I had spent some time in port. 

As there was a very heavy sea on at this time (the 
squall having been followed by a gale), and as every 
time she rolled the topmast nodded toward the lee 
bow, I was pretty glad when we got our gear into 
shape for "wedging up." One doesn't like to have 
the mast on which he is working go away and leave 
him until he has finished his job ; and if it had taken 
us along too, it would have been too wet to work with 



106 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

comfort. As the "fid" was split, by the topmast 
bending from its place, it was a pretty " close call " 
for some of our new masts we got in New York, 
just before sailing. 

Cape-pigeons and albatrosses are about the ship 
in clouds, and the Mother Gary's chickens appear to 
have gone at last ; but two of them stuck to us so 
long, I was tempted to get my gun out and shoot 
them, for spoiling my prophecy about their leaving 
when they got the watch relieved by the escort of 
the Southern Ocean. I began to be afraid that a 
lack of observation was what made me suppose they 
didn't make Australian voyages ; but as I haven't 
seen one for several days, I guess the hypothesis was 
correct. Have seen no " evil spirits " yet, and think 
they must be all gone ashore on some tempest-swept 
rock, to lay their eggs and propagate their ill-omened 
race, or they would surely have taken a part in our 
recent celebration. Perhaps they do not get as far 
north as this. I never spend much time in this lati- 
tude, but get to the southward of the forty-fifth 
parallel as quickly as I conveniently can, not only 
to get shorter degrees of longitude, but also to get 
better weather. 

I cannot understand why most navigators stay in 
such a low latitude when they would get so much 
better weather if they were to go farther south. The 
English fleet stick to about the 40th parallel, and I 
think most Americans seldom cross the 45th, leav- 
ing me to go pretty much alone down among the 
penguins, where I get better weather, carry easier 



GOOD WEATHER AND ICEBERGS. 107 

sail, and make quicker time, I have always crossed 
the Indian Ocean between the 48th and 5 2d parallels, 
but do not stay long to the southward of the 50th ; 
preferring about the 49th, when the wind will allow 
me to stay there. 

Well, if this is a sample of their low-latitude weath- 
er, and they think it grows proportionately worse as 
one gets farther south, I don't wonder they hesitate 
to go. I think one trip across the Indian Ocean, in 
such weather as I usually get from here to the forty- 
third parallel, would frighten me so that I wouldn't 
dare set a topsail. I have had all my misfortunes be- 
tween these parallels, since I have been running in 
these waters. 

On the last voyage we carried a five-hundred-yard 
spanker from Marion Island to the coast of New Zea- 
land, a distance of 5,100 miles, during which we were 
down to latitude 51-30, and never lowered it once. 
It was in the winter (June), and we made this part of 
the passage in thirty days. The English ships report- 
ed the very worst weather in about latitude 40, many 
of them having had spells of heaving-to, not daring 
to run ; and one of them had been as long from the 
Isle of France, in the Indian Ocean, as we had been 
from the coast of South America. 

Of course that was very exceptional, and we would 
usually have to shorten sail, at least at the after-end 
of the ship, as often as once a week ; but here one 
cannot keep the same kind of wind long enough to 
decide how much he can carry. 

I suppose many are anxious about icebergs ; but 



108 UNDER COTTON CANVAS, 

as I have seen them in 42-30 latitude, and then 
gone whole passages near 50 and seen none, I think 
there is danger of them anywhere : and commend me 
to a sailor or an officer who has lately seen one, to 
keep a good lookout. They have a lonely and chilly 
appearance, and any one who looks at one will be 
sure there is something to look for, and that it will 
be about his last exploit if he runs one down. I don't 
like to be always cautioning people to look out sharp- 
ly for things that never turn up. After a while it 
sounds hackneyed, even to one's own ears ; and Jack 
is apt to think it is merely a conventional speech, 
made to let him know one is on deck. For the same 
reason, if I see an iceberg anywhere near ahead, I 
always make it a point to sail as close to it as safety 
will allow, in order to let every one know there is 
something very real about them. 

While on the subject I wish to say that the idea 
we read of in books on navigation, that if the temper- 
ature of the water is tried often there is no danger 
of getting near to them without warning, is a fallacy. 
I once had the water at 36 degrees, Fahrenheit, for 
four days of perfectly clear weather, during which 
time I sent a man to the royal yard every hour or 
two during the daylight, and we never saw any sign 
of ice during the time. 

A few days later we made an iceberg about a hun- 
dred and thirty feet high, thirteen miles dead to le'- 
ward. We tried the water, and found it to be 39 
degrees, Fahrenheit, the air being 40 degrees. We 
then ran for the iceberg, watching the air-thermora- 



GOOD WEATHER AND ICEBERGS. 109 

eter and trying the water every mile, sailed as near 
to it as we dared, and as soon as we had passed it, 
ran across to where the wind blew directly from it ; 
during which trial if the air or water changed at all, 
it was such a small fraction of a degree that it wasn't 
distinguishable. Perhaps it may be thought this was 
too small a quantity of ice to affect the thermometer, 
but I thought it quite a respectable lump ; and as I 
am sure it was enough to wreck a Spanish Armada, 
it does away with the theory that one may feel safe 
if he only watches the thermometer. 

My theory is that there are currents which are 
colder than others, and probably they are more likely 
to have ice in them than the warmer ones ; but if one 
stops to think how long it takes a lump of ice in a 
glass of water to cool the water thoroughly without 
it being stirred, he cannot expect water to conduct 
the cold temperature of icebergs many miles. 



Chapter XIII. 

Hospitality. — Buenos Ayres. — Bahia Blanca. — Western 
Australia. — The Piratical Poet: or, The Poetical Pirate. 

Never having been in Cape Town except a very 
few days when I was mate, I am beginning to con- 
jecture as to what my social position is hkely to be 
when I get there. A ship-master's rank in life is 
subject to great fluctuations ; and he can scarcely 
estimate from his reception in one port, what it is 
likely to be in the next. A British colony is fairly 
safe, and one can count pretty surely on courtesy, 
and usually on cordiality. 

If any brother navigator wishes to learn what a 
mere atom he can become in the estimation of his 
consignee, I can cheerfully recommend him to try 
Buenos Ayres. When I first arrived there, I 
thought I had drawn nearly a blank in the way 
of a consignee ; but I subsequently learned that 
I was treated by him like a small prince, in com- 
parison with some of my fellows. Mine had a room 
outside of his office in which we could wait without 
much prospect of getting kicked out ; and if we were 
not fastidious as to the amount of furniture in it, and 
did not mind the danger of having our chairs sold 
from under us, we could sit down. 

(110) 



HOSPITALirV.— BUENOS AYRES. HI 

I can revel in luxury where there is but a kero- 
sene-oil box and a nail-keg in the way of available 
furniture, provided the host seems anxious for me to 
get the smoothest one, and shows solicitude for my 
comfort and entertainment. But when a room is 
nearly full of chairs, all adorned with labels which 
state the selling price, and there is danger of" 
the customers who are investigating the prices ig- 
nominiously expelling one before his man of busi- 
ness comes to the door to ask him what he is there 
for (particularly in the absence of an invitation to sit 
from even some salesman or errand-boy of the es- 
tablishment), I find it more compatible with one's 
dignity to hang about the street-corners or to pre- 
tend to be interested in the traffic going on around. 
So, when I w^as not so fortunate as to get an 
interview immediately, I usually resorted to one of 
those methods of killing the time till the probation 
was up, and I could get the very brief interview 
which couldn't be prolonged to any extent without 
my incurring risk of the impoliteness of keeping the 
proprietor standing too long in the door-way, and 
get off to the place where at least one could be sure 
of a welcome as long as he gave liberal orders for 
stimulating beverages. 

When I came to go with some of my fellow ship- 
masters to their consignees' offices, I learned that the 
probable option of loafing on deal-bottomed chairs 
was only available to a favored few, and that they 
were compelled to maintain a strictly upright posi- 
tion until such time as the hospitable features of the 



112 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

chieftain appeared, framed in a window like those of 
a bank-teller, or risk offending a salesman by clan- 
destinely leaning against a show-case, or surrepti- 
tiously sitting on a counter. The window was a 
decided drawback ; as it deprived them of the amuse- 
ment I enjoyed, of approaching my office by strata- 
gem, and trying to gain admission to the sacred 
fastness by a coup de main. 

When to get on board one's ship means to take a 
railroad train, if one has any business to transact at 
any other time during the day, and isn't fond of 
hanging around street-corners or of manipulating 
pasteboard arbitrators of the question of who is to 
pay for the drinks, he is likely to find the time hang 
heavily on his hands. 

A genial United States consul is an advantage 
one enjoys, but as Uncle Sam's diplomatic gener- 
osity doesn't encourage extensive offices, and as 
when I was in Buenos Ayres the temporarily good 
freights had lured the coal fleet from the home coast 
(resulting in a pretty extensive company of Ameri- 
can skippers), there was room in the consul's office 
for but a small percentage of us at a time, and we 
were forced to be very judicious in our visits to him, 
or risk an embarrassing overflow. 

I hasten to explain that this only applies to the 
city of Buenos Ayres, and only to those whom we 
meet in business. Although there only once, I saw 
positive symptoms of private hospitality, and en- 
joyed some of it myself with as genial hosts as the 
world affords. 



BAHIA BLANC A. 113 

When I was at the provincial port of Bahia 
Blanca, my consignee and the British consul carried 
hospitality to an alarming extent, and I enjoyed 
"the freedom of the city," as well as that of the ad- 
joining country; one of the most remarkable feat- 
ures of which was a curious native feast called a 

" Came con "(something), given for my benefit { ? ) 

at their request by an " Estancheiv," and where I 
was regaled on roast bullock which had been cooked 
in the earth, the host performing the double duty of 
carving and removing the hide. At first I was in 
some consternation lest the animal might be alive ; 
but was reassured by my entertainers, they declaring 
that it was all right, the butcher having killed him 
before he was cooked. 

The only drawback noticeable about this feast, 
and which is responsible for the shadow of doubt 
expressed by the question-mark in the last para- 
graph, was the absence of simultaneity in the pro- 
posal of toasts and consequent absorption of 
champagne. When one has a score or two of hosts, 
and each one insists on pledging him, the absence of 
a table prevents concerted action ; and the guest is 
liable to repetitions which may cause the beef to 
have a temporary ill-effect on his brain. The writer, 
not having been used to hard knocks in the way of 
festivity, suffered temporarily from these causes, and 
remembers that, when taking the moonlight drive to 
town after the banquet was over, our planet seemed 
to have borrowed a few satellities from some of her 
exterior neighbors, and the Southern Cross was 



114 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

studded with a greater number of stars than is 
usually displayed by that constellation ; since which 
time he has regarded South American beef, particu- 
larly when served in large quantities, with suspicion. 

When in the country shooting, I never saw the 
mud hut so small that it was safe to offer, for the 
quarter of roast mutton always at my disposal, base 
metal to the proprietor ; as the large admixture of 
aboriginal blood in his veins did not hinder him from 
drawing up with the offended pride of a Castilian, 
and waving his hand to signify his wish that I 
should return it to my pocket. The only way I ever 
succeeded in paying anything at all for my enter- 
tainment, was to get the money into the hands of 
some child who was too young to understand the 
indignity. 

On one occasion my hostess insisted on my accept- 
ing some chickens to take on board my ship; and on 
my peremptory refusal, she sent a man on horseback 
to carry them down to the beach to my boat, though 
I had told her that I was going to sail on the turn of 
the tide. The prospect of her getting anything in 
return was utterly hopeless, my ship being a mile 
from the shore. 

This munificent princess served ^'inate'^ to her 
guests in a room about ten feet square, with walls of 
mud, roof of rushes, and a floor provided by Nature; 
with no piece of furniture bearing any resemblance 
to a chair. She had never seen me before, and as 
she lived back of the hills near the mouth of the 
river twenty miles from town, the prospect of ever 



WES TERN A US TRALIA. 115 

seeing me again was very small. "7V(? iinportc, 
Seno7'," was her invariable answer to all my protes- 
tations that it was impossible for me to make any 
return. 

In most of the British colonies, the ship-master is 
treated by his consignee with the utmost courtesy. 
If he has any time to spare, one of the best chairs 
in the office is at his disposal, and he gets all the en- 
couragement to remain that one can desire. But 
whenever I wish to go to extremes on almost any 
subject, I have to go back to Western Australia; 
to which colony I am forced to award " the bis- 
cuit " in this case as in most others. 

Perhaps the reader has never learned much of this 
remote and inconsiderable corner of the earth, 
and if not, it may be the only advantage I have 
over him ; but I assure him it is a great one. 
I believe but few poets have sung of it, but the rest 
have sadly neglected their duties, as well as their 
opportunities ; and if any one feels that he has any 
hold at all on the Muses, I will guarantee that a half- 
year's residence there will develop him into a rival 
of the greatest living bard. 

This is the only spot I have visited where the 
opinion that 

" A stranger is a holy name " 

seems to be universal. If any one wishes to see the 
Scotland of Sir Walter Scott's pen, this is doubtless 
his best chance. If the stranger here lack 

" Rest and a guide, and food, and fire," 



116 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

it must be because he doesn't find a human being in 
any rank of life. 

When we approached the coast a boat boarded us 
outside of the harbor, and I got my Yankee tongue 
ready to drive a hard bargain with some one who 
probably had designs on my future freight. When 
two men came on board and told me they had come 
out to help us get in, and didn't name any terms, I 
at first wondered if there were a kind of sylvan har- 
bor board there, with compulsory pilotage. I was 
soon struck, however, with the elegance of their 
language (which is not to any great extent the shib- 
boleth of the average British pilot), and commenced 
to look them over a little. The most noticeable feat- 
ure about their dress was that they both wore 
spurs ; another source of doubt, pilots rarely wearing 
those useful ornaments. 

I was by this time suspicious that I had struck 
strange company for the seaboard, and examined 
their waists to learn whether or not they wore the 
belt as well as the spur of knighthood. They 
had none on, neither did I notice any garter ; but 
truer knights never put lance in rest, charged on a 
windmill, or rescued a frightened " shell-back " from 
among reefs, ledges, and breakers. 

They stayed with us until we got the anchor down, 
and then took me ashore in their boat ; and when 
we got to the beach, instead of two, there were 
three horses for us to ride to the station. When we 
arrived there, my papers were given to a man who 
was the next morning to ride seventy-five miles to 



WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 117 

find a custom-house in which to " enter " the ship ; 
and I was shown to my room and entertained as care- 
fully as could have been a prince of the blood. 

I thought I had learned something then ; but the 
end was not yet. A few days later I went ashore 
unexpectedly, and not finding a horse, started to walk 
to the station to get one ; wishing to ride to a cattle- 
station where one of my amateur pilots was a guest, 
and where I had not yet been, in order to consult 
him about a change of berth that was necessary. 
Meeting two men, I asked them how far it was to 
the cattle-station, when one of them got off his horse 
and insisted that I should get on, while the other 
said he would guide me. Of course I protested, but 
he insisted ; and the result was that one of them 
walked four miles to his house, and the other rode 
five in another direction, and guided me to my 
destination. 

These are the Mclvors, the Peverils, and the 
Bradwardines ; but if one wishes to see (and who 
does not .-') the Floras, the Helens, the Di Vernons, 
and (to leave fiction for history) the Grace Darlings, 
they are to be found at nearly every station, and they 
will be equally at home on "Highland heath " or at 
" Holyrood " — beside the camp-fire or in the draw- 
ing-room — on the divan or in the saddle — at a 
kangaroo-hunt or a lawn-party, — directing stock- 
hunters or at a vice-regal reception. 

I wasn't fortunate enough to meet tJic Grace Dar- 
ling of the colony, — who, on a coast where no boat 
could "live," plunged her horse into the surf and res- 



118 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

cued several drowning sailors, — but was fortunate in 
meeting all the others. 

One "Miss Vernon," when acting as my hostess, 
after a mere glance at a jaded steed that had carried 
me and my " swag " forty-five miles the day before 
and was destined to complete the journey (thirty 
more), immediately pronounced him unfit, ordered me 
to give him more rest (offering one of her own horses 
if my time didn't admit of it, but who could be such 
a churl as to accept a new means of getting away ?), 
and, when I started at last, deprived me of every 
ounce of my baggage except, perhaps, my pocket- 
knife and tooth-pick, and sent it to me on the following 
day. Thus lightened, she allowed me to mount my 
horse, first cautioning me to guard carefully against 
his over-exertion ; and I departed, full of gratitude 
to her for not having ordered me to now and then 
"relieve the watch" by carrying him awhile in my 
arms : which order probably I, or any other of my 
sex, would have at least tried to obey. 

A " Flora," having, when on a visit to a station in 
the vicinity of the ship, learned by an unguarded 
word which I dropped, that I had no cat on board and 
would like to have one, sent one to me by special 
messenger as soon as she arrived back home. Only 
thirty miles. A mere every-day act of courtesy — in 
Western Australia ; but a respectable distance to 
send a herd of cattle to market in most other parts 
of the world. 

To show the poetic influence of this region, I may 
mention that one of my crew, on seeing, on the bank 



THE PIRATICAL POET. 119 

of a small lake, a girl who acted as governess to the 
children of a mounted-policeman who lived on its 
border, immediately pronounced her "the Lady ol 
the Lake." 

Who and what was this man whose poetic dreams 
caused so romantic a thought ? An aspiring young 
cadet, overflowing with bright visions of a future life 
of success, love, and romance ? A gallant young Le- 
ander or Grasme, who would swim a dozen or two 
miles for a lady's smile or rather than be indebted to 
an enemy for a boat ? 

No. A pirate "from away back." One of the 
rarest old villains that ever escaped hanging. One 
who was the leader and sole cause of a mutiny that 
resulted in himself and his shipmates tramping 
seventy-five miles, spending fifty-three days in jail, 
and losing four months' pay — ^120 each (paid to 
substitutes for loading and moving the ship to the 
vicinity of the jail, for convenience in putting them 
on board). One who unconsciously added to my inter- 
est in life by making it imperative for me to make 
one of the rarest expeditions that ever fell to the lot 
of a navigator — five days in the saddle, with my 
nights divided between the camp-fire and the hospi- 
table roofs which are sparsely scattered through this 
sylvan Arcadia. One who forced me to make an 
extra passage in my ship with a "jury "-crew, who, 
as soon as relieved by the mutineers, shouldered 
their " swags and billies " and tramped back. One 
who promised to finish my earthly career by cutting 
my throat whenever he should be put on board, but 



120 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

afterwards commuted the sentence to cremation, and, 
after arriving at Hong Kong, set the ship on fire in 
three places under deck, first saturating the sails 
stowed there with two quarts of kerosene oil in each 
place. One who boasted of this latter exploit in the 
presence of five of the Hong Kong police, declaring 
that he would yet make a finish of the ship, and me 
too ; admitted it in the office of the chief of police, 
and afterward in the police court ; was committed for 
trial in the supreme court of Hong Kong for the 
crime of arson ; and escaped by what the most loyal 
newspaper in the colony termed " A Curiosity of 
Justice " : which trial caused the exception I made 
in a former chapter, when writing of the enforcement 
of British law. 

All this was in consequence of the mate detecting 
and frustratmg a scheme for desertion, after the 
would-be deserters had made a passage of eleven days 
and received a month's pay in advance. The other 
members of the crew followed him, as great leaders 
are always followed, but not one of them would ever 
have thought of committing mutiny if left to do as 
he pleased. The reason why I pursued the matter 
so pertinaciously, is that I couldn't get another crew 
anywhere inside of a thousand miles ; and what made 
it practicable, was the peculiarity of a " sea-lawyer's " 
knowledge of law. They always see their chance in 
the wrong place. Not knowing that there are no 
American sailors, they thought it a piece of oppres- 
sion a British magistrate wouldn't allow, for us to 
attempt to hold any others. I depended solely on 



THE POETICAL PIRATE. 121 

this wisdom to keep them in the path till I had se- 
cured the document necessary to enable me to hold 
them. The event proved that I made a correct esti- 
mate of their legal confidence ; as, after kindly keep- 
ing the path three days under no legal restraint, they 
waited patiently in the kitchen of an inn, drinking 
nappy and the landlord's queerest stories (both which 
were provided at my request), while I waited for a 
telegraphic response from the United States consul 
at a distance of two hundred miles, and then got the 
instrument filled out and signed : their behavior 
throughout the transaction showing a deep-rooted 
conviction of their proficiency as jurists that would 
have put Blackstone to shame. 



Chapter XIV. 

The Usurping Boom. — Courage. — Land Ho! 

Fifty days out : latitude, 34 degrees 30 minutes S.; 
longitude, 14 degrees 40 minutes E. This is the day 
which I set aside to anchor in Table Bay ; but, like 
many other plans of mice, men, and wind-jamming nav- 
igators, it failed. On the thirty-eighth day out, I 
divided the distance by twelve, to learn what rate of 
speed would be necessary for doing this. Each day 
faithfully performed its quota until the forty-eighth, 
when the barometer climbed to a height which indi- 
cates light or easterly winds, or calms ; since which 
we have been working our way slowly, alternately 
cheered by hope and crushed by despair. The only 
thing that has stood by us faithfully is the heavy sea; 
which furnishes an inexhaustible supply of hideously 
deformed lumps, from so many different points of the 
compass that any attempt to steer a course to avoid 
them is vain : so we roll from beam-end to beam-end, 
while sails, gaffs, yards, and booms vie with each 
other in the work of devastation. 

I have been twice relived from duty, the spanker- 
boom having taken temporary command in a manner 
which causes one to sigh for some occupation that 

(122) 



COURAGE. 123 

would call him to the jib-boom end, until the battle 
should be over. After a close engagement, during 
which feats of valor were performed which should 
live in history, we managed to overcome the monster 
and get him under subjection. 

Courage seems to be an easy thing to command 
when one knows that should he fall he will live in 
the affections of his countrymen for having died a 
martyr to their liberty, and is likely to have his name 
carved on a large monument or his bronze effigy 
standing for centuries in a public square ; but when 
the prospect is six yards of cotton canvas and obliv- 
ion, it is more difficult to assume. When I was a 
young aspirant for nautical honors, thought a ship- 
master but little inferior in rank to a monarch, and 
had the eye of one of those magnificent dignitaries 
on me, I could perform feats of valor worthy of Cha- 
pultepec or Ticonderoga ; and a perch on the end of 
a stud'n's'l boom — twenty-five feet outside of the 
fore yard-arm — was a small paradise : but when one 
has but a few ordinary old pirates to record his 
prowess, and them belonging to a profession the 
members of which rarely acknowledge merit in one 
of their kind ; and when the object in view is but 
the salvation of base lucre, or at the outside to save 
one's self the extra work of rigging jury-masts, I find 
the old habit of rushing to the front is not so strong 
as it was in those bright and hopeful days. I am 
confident that if any one of the famous "Light Bri- 
gade " had been perfectly sure that no one would ever 
know how he behaved in battle, only five hundred 



124 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

and ninety-nine would have taken part in the famous 
charge. 

We are still one hundred and eighty miles from 
our destination, and although we have a respectable 
breeze at present, there is not a very good prospect 
of keeping it. I hope to get up to the land pretty 
soon, as the moon is about retreating to the pages of 
the almanac, and it will soon be too small to be of 
much service. I suppose it is all right for us to have 
got only one of the outfit of moons for the solar sys- 
tem, but I cannot understand why some of the exte- 
rior planets should have fared so much better. I do 
not complain of Jupiter having four, as he is both so 
large and so far away that we cannot estimate how 
dark his nights would have been without them ; but 
when I think of Saturn, though smaller, having 
seven, I cannot help feeling that our rights were over- 
looked when the division was made. His distance 
from the sun is certainly greater than ours or Jupi- 
ter's ; but he having been so beautifully fitted with a 
ring, it would seem nearer just (if there wasn't mate- 
rial to make another) for us to have got one of his 
moons. 

Fifty-one days out, and the passage is about draw- 
ing to a close. Table Mountain and the Lion's Head 
are in sight, and the Lion's Rump is just peeping 
above the horizon ; which indicates that we are about 
forty miles off. If we hold anywhere near the amount 
of wind we have at present, we shall be snugly at 
anchor in the early part of the evening. This is 



LAND HO! 125 

seven days better than the Onward has done before, 
except that we are not so far south as when we 
have arrived at the same longitude on previous voy- 
ages. 

As I shall probably have enough work on my hands 
fighting the enemy, seeing a little of South Africa, 
and trying to steer my ship clear of the Philistines ; 
and as ship-brokers, ship-owners, and deserted friends 
will be likely to monopolize my pen, I shall perhaps 
fail to meet the reader again until the mighty dollar 
shall have decided for what quarter of the globe we 
shall steer next, and we have our topsails mast-headed 
for another passage : when I shall be glad to again 
wash the dust of dry land from my hands, and 
tell him how I fared in the land of Kafirs and 
Hottentots. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Eastward Ho ! — Survivors of Crew. — Collecting and Fos- 
tering Tramps. — Early Morning View. — " Balloon Voyage " to 
Chili. — Deplorable Curiosity. 

After over a month in port, we again find our- 
selves tossing on the ever-restless swell, which has 
been all this time pounding away at the west side of 
the Lion's Mountain in the vain endeavor to get to 
us. The cape-pigeons appear to have been waiting 
for us. Though I hadn't seen one since we passed 
the Lion's Rump inward-bound, we had not got a 
mile from the headland this morning, when they com- 
menced to rise from the surface of the water and 
again to circle round in the wake as though they knew 
we were ready to feed them through an extended 
cruise to the eastward. It was just beginning to be 
daylight when we got outside, which was probably 
the reason why they were sitting on the water ; but 
it appeared as though they had sat down the evening 
we went in and had been waiting ever since. Anoth- 
er thing that helped out the theory was the fact that 
two "evil spirits " followed us for several days before 
we arrived, and exactly the same number joined us 
soon after we got out. 

The mate, steward, and myself are the sole surviv- 
ors of the outward crew, except Prince, who seems 

(126) 



COLLECTING AND FOSTERING TRAMPS. 127 

not yet to have learned to leave in every port. The 
crew left during the first few days we were in the 
dock, save one ; and he only stayed long enough to 
steal sixty-six pounds of tobacco from the cargo, after 
which he ran away too. It took only eleven pounds 
sterling to settle the bill, and if he got two for it, he 
probably thought it a good bargain. The second 
mate stayed until we were nearly ready for sea, and 
then quietly slipped into the mountains to await our 
departure before coming down from his rocky perch 
to call on our representative for protection from the 
proverbial " wolf." 

I thought I knew of all the happy acts of our 
legislature made for the purpose of retrieving fallen 
Jack, and having the effect of lowering his standard 
another notch ; but here is another of which I was 
not before aware. Our diplomate at "The Cape" 
informs me that he must now adopt any one who 
claims ever to have been an American sailor, with- 
out regard either to the cause of his being ashore or 
the nationality of the vessel sailed in last, unless 
by cross-examination he can disprove the statement ; 
which gives Jack perfect security against hunger, 
in case of his deserting in one of the few places 
where enterprise has not given birth to that profes- 
sion the members of which live by the sweat of his 
(Jack's) brow. 

This is hard for me to believe, but as our consul 
is putting it into practice, I suppose it must be true. 
I have two men in my crew now who ran away 
from an American "sealer." The instant she had 



128 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

gone to sea they claimed the consul's protection, 
and he sent them to a boarding-house and then 
shipped them with me as men who were on his 
hands. I also saw him closely cross-examine a man 
who claimed to have left an American vessel in 
some eastern port of the colony, but who was evi- 
dently a pure specimen of the British tramp. 
Another that he shipped with me (but who raised 
money on his advance-note and then tramped again) 
was his protege, although he left a Nova Scotian 
vessel, but claimed to belong to the United States. 
When this new phase of the question becomes 
generally known, our last chance of returning with 
the outward crew will disappear, and every one who 
ever sailed beneath our flag will treasure his dis- 
charge as a perpetual soup-ticket. 

I do not wish it to be understood that I am com- 
plaining of our law-makers. In a former work I 
tried to show that legislation is a difficult trade, and 
in this see only a further proof. Neither do I wish 
to join the chorus of voices that accuse the Govern- 
ment of squandering the public finances. We al- 
ready have an unenviable reputation for hoarding 
them at the expense of our dignity abroad. I 
heartily approve of giving a soldier a pension ; for, 
though the old ones are not likely to be wanted 
again, a show of ingratitude to them might make 
it difficult to get young ones if an emergency should 
arise : and I understand that it is impossible to give 
him one, without some of the money falling into the 
hands of the unworthy. 



COLLECTING AND FOSTERING TRAMPS. 129 

But I wish to show that our present system of 
gathering in tramps ; feeding them and giving them 
a passage home at the Government's expense ; protect- 
ing the interests of the men who board and ship 
them, and who will not let respectable men ship ; 
clothing them from a compulsory slop-chest, and 
paying a large number of "shipping commissioners," 
who, however honest and well-meaning they may be 
(as shown in my former work), protect them at the 
expense of respectable sailors, — will never retrieve 
our lost position on the sea, or add one man to our 
available force for the protection of our coasts from 
a possible future enemy. Instead of this more than 
useless expense, would it not be better to encourage 
our ship-builders to put some tonnage on the sea? 
The natural result of doing that would be to make 
navigation a profession that would lure some of our 
young men from the over-competition of labor on 
shore, and give us a class of seamen who would form 
the habit of depending on their own exertions to 
gain a livelihood ; which discipline would make them 
men, instead of the wretched creatures resulting 
from our present plan. 

If this last item is true, the American sailor can 
now throw away all his money, pawn his clothes, get 
a ship before a respectable man, get clothed on 
board, leave his work and tramp into the country 
the instant his ship touches a wharf, or whenever he 
can succeed in stealing one of the ship's boats, and 
demand food and protection from the United States 
consul as soon as she has sailed ; and all 



130 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

this without running the least risk of becoming 
hungry, except for a few days before the ship sails. 
Could we possibly invent a better system for 
gathering under our flag a collection of useless and 
irresponsible tramps ? 

I was surprised when the second mate left, as he 
seemed quite cheerful during our stay in port ; but I 
suppose that for one of his gloomy stamp to become 
cheerful, is as ominous as the opposite change in 
others. I offered an unusually large reward for his 
apprehension, as he was an invaluable artist, and 
could make (or at least repair) anything from a fore- 
mast to a clock ; but he was also an expert at hiding, 
and the police failed to discover his lurking-place. 
I had already secured a curiosity — a live American 
sailor ; so was in a position to replace him easily. 
The rest of my crew is made up of many different 
kinds, the Malay from the Philippines and the news- 
paper reporter being both represented among them. 

We sailed just before daylight, and after we had got 
outside, during the hour that intervened before the 
sun rose, were treated to a view that one rarely sees 
surpassed. To the north the solitary light on Rob- 
ben Island seemed struggling vainly to illuminate 
the dark brow of the picturesque Blauwberg in the 
rear, while in front the low western slope of the 
island ran far out into the surf, its ebony blackness 
bringing into startling prominence the ghostly and 
madly-galloping " white horses " of the Atlantic. Far 
to the eastward rose the summits of the vast chains 
of mountains in the interior, their varied sheaps pen- 



EARLY MORNING VIEW. 131 

cilled on a sky of the most beautiful and indescriba- 
ble tint, in which, forming a perfect isosceles trian- 
gle a few degrees above the horizon, two bright stars 
and a thin crescent of moon seemed to join the white, 
red, and green lights on Green Point, Mouille Point, 
and the breakwater, below, in a protest against the 
approaching sunlight that was soon to overcome 
their modest radiance. 

To the southeast rose that gigantic barrier, the 
Table Mountain, its long, horizontal summit — nearly 
as straight as a geometrical line — in happy contrast 
with the rugged outline of the Devil's Berg farther 
east, and its rocky, precipitous face, partially lighted 
by the halo of the approaching sun, forming a back- 
ground against which the Lion's Head, its dark, 
westerly side toward us, seemed a colossal mass of 
jet; while the Lion's Rump, its base beginning to 
light up with the white suburban villas of Green 
Point, hid from view the beautiful little town whose 
inhabitants seemed to be guilty of sacrilege for being 
asleep at so delightful an hour. To the southward 
the Twelve Apostles (the first close to Table Moun- 
tain and nearly as high) stretched away in a succes- 
sion of small rocky peaks rising from a vast inclined 
plateau, terminating near the rugged cliffs that form 
the headlands of Hout Bay ; beyond which another 
chain extends a few miles farther south, and falls 
suddenly to a low, sandy neck, terminated by two 
detached heights, — Vasco de Gama Peak and Cape 
Point. 

At the foot of these huge obstructions, the long, 



132 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

high, lazy ocean swell, after an uninterrupted course 
of four thousand miles, seemed to be suddenly aroused 
to fury, and rushed madly at the rocky cliffs, break- 
ing with a mighty roar on the Lion's Paws, Green 
Point, Sea Point, and the promontories on each side 
of Camps Bay ; creating a scene such as warns the 
wary navigator to get a good "offing" before ven- 
turing where the failure of the wind would leave his 
ship to drift into the horrible struggle between wave 
and rock. 

This panorama caused me to regret that I have 
never procured the means of securing a view of some 
of the startling scenes we enjoy while the world is 
asleep ; and though I have shrunk from those perti- 
nacious persons who proclaim from the pages of 
nearly every newspaper that if one will " press -the 
button " they will " do the rest," with the same hor- 
ror that I have from " Three-dollar shoes " and 
"Ayer's Hair Vigor," I am determined to secure one 
of their instruments before taking another voyage. 

My present cargo consists of " Lion's Mountain," 
and we are bound for no less a place than Iquique, 
Chili ; probably to take a cargo of nitrate of soda to 
some port on the home coast. Since the delight- 
fully sleepy town we have just left doesn't contain a 
specimen of the genus ship-broker, — I mean of the 
heroic variety of that ilk, who will encircle the globe 
with a network of electric currents rather than allow 
a ship to depart without paying him the accustomed 
tribute of a commission on freight, — and as there 
was nothing, as I had expected, to be loaded in the 



"BALLOON VOYAGE'' TO CHLLI. 133 

colony, I was unable to get an offer of future busi- 
ness. Owing to this and to the fact that the freight 
circulars from ports farther east did not look sufB- 
ciently tempting to induce me to risk a " seeking " 
trip in that direction, I wired home in order to get 
any advantage which might result from a change of 
base ; and after I had given up getting a response 
and had begun to make preparations to sail for the 
West Indies, I received orders to proceed to the 
above-named port. 

I was surprised, as well as somewhat disconcerted; 
the Cape Horn route, the nearest, being against the 
prevailing winds, and the other (thirteen thousand 
miles "in ballast," and in the winter) being farther 
beyond a joke for the Outward Xh-AXi any living person 
but myself — who have experienced her eccentricities 
a la egg-shell — can estimate. 

The last news I have heard from Chili — in a town 
where electricity seems not to agree to any extent 
with journalism — indicates that though it may be a 
place of doubtful desirability for loading a cargo, it is 
a splendid voyage for one who feared that a quiet 
return home via the West Indies might be a little 
tame to inflict on the public ; and even if, as seems 
probable, the war is over, those fellows appear to be 
unable to exist very long without fighting, and there 
may be a relapse which will give us a scent of smoke. 
If not, we are now in for circumnavigation. Cape 
Horn, a balloon voyage across the Indian and Pacific 
Oceans, and other curiosities not to be found to the 
westward. 



134 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

Before the science of war reaches that degree of 
perfection that all who are in the same quarter of the 
globe in which the dreadful game is in operation will 
go up in one vast cloud of smoke, I hope to get into 
the vicinity of some little disturbance (a long way 
from home), in order to ascertain how fortunate is a 
state of peace. I was in Tonquin when the French 
and Chinese were shooting at each other, but did not 
get near enough to a battle to hear the guns. I have 
been told that Iquique has been bombarded out of 
shape ; but as I have been up to my old habit of not 
reading myself, I do not know whether or not it is 
true. If it is true, I hope to see something to par- 
tially satisfy my deplorable curiosity, even if the 
actual fighting is all over. 

The situation at sea appears to be much the same 
as before we went into port, except that there seems 
to have been a change in the hour of celestial guard- 
mounting. While Sagittarius takes the first watch 
from a higher point in the east, Orion seems to have 
been detailed for day-duty ; retiring with the sun, 
and leaving his follower, Canis Major, to stand the 
" ^^^-watch," after which light duty he disappears. 



Chapter XVI. 

Cape Town. — The Toll-gate. — Civil-service Reform. — Rail- 
roads. — The American Train-conductor. — Advantages of 
Seclusion. — Vested Rights. 

I SUPPOSE I have not learned enough of Cape 
Colony to warrant my writing of it with any preten- 
sion to accuracy ; so I will confine myself mostly to 
appearances as they struck the eye of one who, when 
at home, is often accused of being an Englishman 
because he does not hold Gladstone, Salisbury, and 
the amiable and admirable lady who at present wields 
the British sceptre, responsible for the temporary 
discomfiture of our ancestors at Bunker Hill and 
Brandywine, but who found it simply impossible to 
avoid being a Yankee of the purest stamp, during his 
stay there. Unlike the other British colonies I have 
visited, which appear to feel the electric " push " of 
the age of which Yankeedom may be considered the 
cradle, this is one that adheres pretty strictly to the 
ways of the mother-country, with a sufificient infusion 
of the proverbially sluggish Dutch blood in the veins 
of its population to keep it about twenty years behind 
its model. 

My superficial observations were, of course, princi- 
pally confined to Cape Town. A prettier town when 

C135J 



136 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

looked at from a distance, or one more admirably 
adapted to immobility when one is in its streets, it 
would be hard to find. The one rule for getting 
about town, particularly if in the night, is to keep 
as nearly as possible to the middle of the street. If 
one attempts to take the sidewalk, there are but few 
streets in the town where he would fail to come to 
grief on account of a sudden elevation or depression 
of a foot or so, or to be obliged to ascend and descend 
from two to eight or ten steps. In the day-time, if 
he doesn't mind the climbing, and keeps a sharp 
lookout for pitfalls which will otherwise cause him to 
at least measure his length on the walk, he can stick 
to it most of the time ; as most of the "stoops " have 
steps at each end, and but few have an iron fence 
across to guard against intrusion. I thought I might 
find no furniture inside the houses, except three- 
legged stools like the one from which King Alfred 
ruled England ; but with the exception of hotel-bells, 
which are unknown as far as my observations went, 
they appear to be well provided in that respect. 

There are a few pretty drives in the neighborhood, 
and the inhabitants are British enough to keep good 
horses and to know how to drive them ; but the 
mediaeval toll-gate flourishes, and as they have a pre- 
glacial system of computing the toll to be charged, 
the stranger is bored by making a perpetual multi- 
plication-table of himself, in order to get the right 
change ready for the lame old specimen of humanity 
who acts as cashier, or else must resign himself to a 
hopeless delay. I am a great enemy to recreation 



CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM. 137 

with SO many annoyances attached to it that it 
amounts to hard labor. 

Of course, one of the principal bases for this com- 
putation is the number of wheels on the vehicle ; and 
as the wheelbarrow is not a nice equipage for an out- 
ing, a back-breaking bicycle called a " Cape cart " is 
the principal chariot: so that when "Cape Town " is 
driving with its family, the scene is much the same 
as on the road to a paddock in which is to be held a 
"carter's picnic." I didn't do much driving, but 
usually rode; and only had to count myself and 
horse. As the horses in that region all have the 
same number of hoofs, and most of the men the 
same number of hands and feet, they do not dis- 
criminate in those respects, and one can evade much 
mathematics by sticking closely to equestrianism. 

I did not learn whether or not they tax windows, 
as of old, or whether or not the inhabitants break a 
law when they fail to retire at curfew ; but as a 
policeman sent an order by my watchman to put out 
my cabin-lamp at nine o'clock, it appears very proba- 
ble. I did not obey the order, though they are build- 
ing a dock and breakwater with convict labor, and 
all are welcome on small provocation. As every 
case of buying a rough diamond from other than a 
licensed vender insures one steady occupation at 
that industry for a term of seven years (as I have 
since learned), perhaps I am fortunate in not having 
been placed for a year or two on that public work for 
reading or conversing with my friends by lamplight. 

The railroads appear to be conducted on about the 



138 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

same plan that they were in Britain twenty years ago 
(and may be yet for all I know), and one who doesn't 
chance to be acquainted with the seven others who, 
when the train is full, are squeezed into the compart- 
ment with him, feels that he owes them an apology 
for having presumed to get on the train ; and after 
he has arrived at his destination, has forgotten that 
he has been on a train at all, and has commenced to 
hurry toward the part of the town where he has an 
appointment, he is suddenly confronted by a man 
who asks him for his ticket : giving him an opportu- 
nity to indulge in wicked thoughts while he unbut- 
tons his overcoat, removes his gloves, and searches 
madly in every wrong pocket for the bit of pasteboard 
he had fondly thought was long since become 
obsolete. 

If he has any baggage, he must hurry to the "lug- 
gage van " and see his treasure unloaded ; when he 
may take it in his hand (if he finds it), hire a porter 
to carry it out to where he may be lucky enough 
to find a cab, or, if he cannot possibly take it with 
him, he may choose between hiring a man to guard 
it and searching for some one who may, perhaps (but I 
am not at all sure of this), authorize its being stowed 
in some spare-room until he can come or send for it. 
The ultimate success of all this ceremony depends 
on the owner's name and address having been care- 
fully attached to it when he started ; and if the train 
is not too much crowded, making extra work for 
the few available porters, and he fails to get knocked 
down and mjured by the press of men and trunks by 



THE AMERICAN TRAIN-CONDUCTOR. 139 

which he is surrounded, he can generally get all 
ready to leave the station in from five to twenty min- 
utes after arrival. 

When one questions the convenience of all this, 
he is told there is no "privacy" in American cars. 
I believe that if a traveler gets into one of these com- 
partments alone, or with his friends or family, and is 
fortunate enough to have given the guard a bigger 
"tip" than any one else on the train, his will be 
the last to be filled with the enemy ; but when he 
docs come, as he must when the train gets loaded, I 
defy any one to speak a private word to another, 
sleep, put on or remove an overcoat, rise, or even 
move, without feeling that he is being impolite to all 
the others, and being tempted to make an apology. 
But I have never yet traveled in American cars 
enough to get the idea that I was in anybody's way, 
they in mine, or any one knew or cared what I was 
saying or doing, or to whom I was speaking. (Of 
course, every one knows I do not include the 
New York Elevated in this estimation. In one of 
its trains, one is fortunate to escape with whole 
limbs.) If one has a lady in one of these compart- 
ment-cars, it is as impossible to leave her alone as on 
the street at midnight ; while in an American car 
she would be as safe as in a church. 

One needs to travel on these trains in order to 
fully appreciate that curious specimen of the human 
race — the American Train-Conductor. I enjoyed 
his amiability and other extraordinary qualities for 
years before it ever occurred to me that he is not 



140 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

horn a train-conductor, and differs from many other 
public officials by the same right that a mastiff differs 
from a Yorkshire tyke ; but have now decided that 
they must be only a result of our splendid railroad 
system. 

While the bank-teller will often cause one to almost 
wish he were utterly indigent, and never had a dollar 
to deposit ; while the hotel-clerk sometimes makes 
him nearly envy the newspaper-merchant and his 
empty-hogshead apartment, — the train-conductor 
will tempt him to wish he could stay ashore and 
travel night and day. 

While the official and even the table-waiter of the 
inland steamer often give one the idea that he should 
have stayed at home and not become a burden to his 
fellow mortals ; while the " L "-road guard snubs 
the stranger who fails in the translation of his black- 
letter gutturals, — the train-conductor answers 
politely and cheerfully the many questions constantly 
being put to him ; appears to regard the crowds of 
passengers as something he was prepared to meet, 
and even expected ; makes his annunciations with 
the purest, most intelligible accent of which he is 
master, repeating them till there is no doubt of their 
being understood ; and takes the position of son to 
the old gentleman or lady traveling too late in life, 
father to the fluttered little boy or girl traveling too 
early, and — to his honor be it said — big brother 
and chivalrous knight to the young lady traveling 
alone, when, and only when, she is in need of one. 

One of his most extraordinary points is the ease 



AD VANTA GES OF SE CL USION. 141 

with which he remembers each passenger and his 
destination, and gives him Httle more trouble than if 
he were seated in his own drawing-room. His brain 
must be a vast photographic atlas of the whole line, 
and one glance at the passenger and his ticket seems 
to serve him as well as a week's acquaintance does 
others ; and I think I can safely say that one can 
travel from ocean to ocean with less necessary 
mental strain, than the stranger on the " L " road 
must endure on a trip from Harlem to Eastern 
Brooklyn. 

The system here, while the carriages are not ar- 
ranged to allow him to be of much service if it were 
otherwise, does not seem to have moving with the 
train any one who holds any rank. It is much the 
same as would be a ship ofiEicered entirely by boat- 
swain's mates. The guard appears to be about 
equal in rank to the porter at the station, and I am 
sorely afraid that his chief anxiety is to satisfactorily 
earn the " tips " which have been given him, or he 
hopes will be given him. The seedy character, who 
might be trying to beat the company, is likely to 
have his ticket inspected too often to admit of his be- 
ing much overcarried ; but I am afraid that if " one o' 
the right sort " should get into a reverie, unless that 
emergency was " nominated in the (half-crown) 
bond," he might get badly out of his latitude. 

There are, however, a great many advantages in 
being behind the times, and there are extant many 
deplorable epidemics from which these fortunate 
people have thus far escaped. The worst of these is 



142 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

Trade-unionism, and the Cape laborer is happy in be- 
ing in a position to manage his own affairs and work 
when he pleases, while reading of the direful slavery 
of his contemporaries in other quarters of the globe, 
who must leave their work and starve their families 
whenever their self-imposed task-masters thunder 
forth an edict to that effect. The result of this 
seems to be that though the laborers are of all 
nationalities and of nearly all colors of the rainbow, 
all are busy and happy, and the street-corner effigy 
is almost unknown. 

"La Grippe" is another contagion from which 
they are exempt, and one may take cold when he 
pleases, sip his pennyroyal or catnip tea, and be 
above suspicion. 

The only fever that seems to prevail is an ancient 
one introduced into the colony by one Van Riebeek, 
and appearing to have flourished ever since. This 
is an inclination to martial pursuits ; and while the 
red livery of John Bull is the principal dress seen on 
the streets, it appears to be an exceptional man who 
has not figured as a soldier at some period of his life. 
Nearly any clerk in a dry-goods shop or dock-ware- 
house, can tell thrilling tales of encounters with 
Kafirs or Zulus — Boers, Bushmen, or Basutos ; 
while scarcely a rock exists near the metropolis, that 
has not its story of having figured as a stronghold 
of the followers of Van Riebeek or of his early an- 
tagonists the Hottentots. 

I did not shoot any, as I couldn't put together 
enough spare time to go far into the country ; and 



VESTED RIGHTS. 143 

though I learned rather late that antelope, pheasant, 
and sometimes wild-cats, are to be found in the 
mountains near town, and put up imaginary bags of 
trophies which would have made Nimrod tremble for 
his laurels, I learned later that one needs to be a 
lawyer and devote a few weeks to searching titles if 
he would shoot without getting into difficulties. A 
lady invited me to shoot on her land as much as I 
pleased, so I commenced by taking my gun ashore — 
stopping at the custom-house to deposit two pounds 
sterling as a guarantee of duty if I failed to return it. 
An American would suppose, from this last item, 
that gun-making is one of the principal industries at 
the Cape ; but as I never heard of any extensive 
works devoted to that pursuit, I suppose the transac- 
tion was simply part of the British tariff-scheme, 
which keeps the luxuries among the chosen few. 
I next went to an expert sportsman to ascertain 
what the next step was to be, and learned that I 
must get a permit and purchase a license from the 
Government to enable me to carry the gun, all 
which would be futile unless I went far into the 
country, or got permission from all the different 
land-owners to shoot on. their land. I told him of 
the permission already obtained, and he said that 
although the lady had the right of living and grazing 
on the land (I think, also, the privilege of walking 
over it — but am not sure of this), she had no 
"shooting rights," and I should be liable to action 
for poaching, if I even stuck closely to her land ; he 
also said that some of her neighbors would give per- 



144 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

mission to nobody. The lady protested against this, 
and seemed half inclined to mount a gun herself in 
ord'er to prove her right ; but the iron had entered 
my soul, and before proceeding farther I took time 
to sum up all WiO. pros and cons. 

I remembered that on my first attempting to get 
out of town through the "Kloof," or valley between 
the Table and Lion mountains, I missed the v/ay to 
the Kloof road, but took the word of an old darkie- 
woman who lived in a hut in a big gully, that I could 
get to it if I kept on. I pushed ahead, and when I 
got to where I could no longer ride, dismounted and 
led my horse. I soon got into a most wretched posi- 
tion, among precipitous rocks and entangled in the 
vilest scrub, when, seeing a board which I fondly 
hoped would throw a little light on the question, 
with one mighty effort I forged ahead until I could 
read the legend — 

" Any one trespassing on this ground will be 
prosecuted without respect of persons." 

Being already in the position of Macbeth, "deep 
in blood," in regard to either breaking my neck 
or getting into the police court, I resolved to 
struggle on, and was soon rewarded by emerging on 
the desired thoroughfare, above which was seated an 
artist calmly sketching a most beautiful panorama. 
He looked with surprise at my flushed face and per- 
spiring brow, which seemed to indicate the startling 
proximity of his Elysium to the Stygian depths from 
which I had apparently just been emitted, but kindly 
swung open the celestial gate by calling my attention 



VESTED RIGHTS. 145 

to the sublimity of the scene. The horrible vision of 
ball and chain, however, was too fresh in my mind 
to admit of my entering, and I soon mounted what 
remained of my steed and lost no time in putting a 
spur of the mountain between me and the tempta- 
tion to again trespass on vested rights. 

After putting all this together and adding the fact 
that my time was getting to be very limited, I de- 
cided that on board my ship was far the safest place 
for my gun ; and immediately shouldered it and 
countermarched, recovering the duty from the cus- 
tom-house as I passed, and thanking my good fortune 
that my shooting expedition had not ended " on the 
breakwater." 



Chapter XVII. 

The Kloof. — The Haunted House. — The Southeast Wind. 

The greatest charms about Cape Town, or at least 
what struck me as such, are its splendid mountain 
scenery and the delightful proximity of sylvan soli- 
tude. One can mount his horse and in twenty min- 
utes be where to meet a human being is quite a 
surprise. My favorite ride was out of town by the 
Kloof road, down to a queer, sequestered house 
on the west side of the Lion's Head, — calling a few 
minutes to give my horse a " blow," after his steep 
climb and descent, — then down through the toll-gate 
at Camps Bay, and along the Victoria Road (a won- 
derful thoroughfare along the sea-cliffs, built by con- 
vict labor) past the Twelve Apostles, till dark. I 
would then turn back, calling at the same house to 
have a chat over a log fire ; after which I would take 
a Tarn O' Shanter ride, surrounded by imaginary 
ghosts and goblins, either back over the Kloof or 
around by way of Sea Point, to town. 

From the highest point of the Kloof road, which I 
judge to be about eight hundred feet above sea-level, 
there is more to be seen in proportion to the time 
and exertion invested, than from any other position 
I know. At one glance to the northward, one takes 

(146) 



THE HAUNTED HOUSE. 147 

in a bird's-eye view of the whole town, backed by the 
precipitous face of Table Mountain and flanked by 
the Devil's Berg and Lion's Rump; the semi-cir- 
cular bay with its white, sandy beach, combing 
breakers, curved breakwater, and fleet of anchored 
ships ; and terrace after terrace of mountain-chains, 
rising one above another from the low, white sand- 
hills near the beach, to the snow-capped ranges of 
the interior. On one hand the end of Table Moun- 
tain towers abruptly to an elevation twenty-eight hun- 
dred feet higher, while on the other, rising at an angle 
of from forty-five to sixty degrees, a beautiful forest 
of satin-leaved silver-trees is terminated by an ex- 
traordinary mass of precipitous sandstone called 
the Lion's Head. 

To the southwestward, the South Atlantic — 
flanked by the Twelve Apostles and a craggy spur 
of the Lion's Head and skirted by alternate patches 
of sandy beach, beetling cliffs, and gigantic boulders^ 
against which the heavy ocean swell breaks with 
a continuous roar that is the only sound heard — 
stretches away from the pretty little sheet of water 
called Camps Bay in the centre, to where it is lost 
in the haze of the distant horizon. 

The road now descends by a circuitous and zigzag 
route through a wilderness of forest, ledges, caves, 
and gaping clefts, to the west side of the Lion's Head, 
where, nestled in a labyrinth of massive boulders 
and broad-topped, mushroom-like pines at the foot of 
a vast mountain-gorge, is situated the only habitation 
on this side of the mountain, — the "haunted house" 



148 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

that was the special charm and horror of my noctur- 
nal wanderings. This is a queer production of archi- 
tectural eccentricity, and appears more like a small 
village than one house. 

At the head of the fourth flight of steps that rise 
from the roadside and traverse a terraced lawn, stands 
the main building, partly hidden by festoons of Cape 
ivy, and inhabited by my amiable hostess and her 
household. A flight of steps leads from the end of 
the veranda up to a detached building on the right, 
in v/hich lives their solitary and eccentric lodger, a 
retired centurion of the British army, a curious fos- 
silized relic of Balaclava and Inkermann. Another 
long series of stairs leads from the lair of this mystic 
ex-reaper of laurel and oak, to another gate-way by 
the roadside ; between which and the main entrance, 
its doors fastened by stones rolled against them after 
the manner of sepulchres and charnel-houses of old, 
stands art antiquated stable in which my horse was 
wont to revel in ghostly solitude and a total absence 
of forage, while I talked of disembodied spirits until 
it required all the courage I could command to re- 
trieve him. 

On the other side of the main entrance, and extend- 
ing close down to the road, stand other detached 
buildings, in some of which lived the servants when 
they were so fortunate as to be able to keep any ; but 
who, at the time of my visit, had all deserted in favor 
of a spectre that some of them had seen, breathing 
sulphurous flames and holding high revel in the 
gorge at the rear. On the first terrace back of the 



THE HAUNTED HOUSE. 149 

house, a few paces from the rear windows of the 
sitting-room, under the shadow of a huge fig-tree, are 
three oblong mounds of earth, beneath which, in 
company with his wife and daughter, sleeps the for- 
mer occupant of the house ; and though the elder 
pair seem to be contented with their lot, report 
credits the wraith of the younger lady with the habit of 
walking up and down the ravine, clad in spectral gray, 
and, according to the story of the servants (though 
I do not believe this part, and am not sure that it 
was the same ghost), emitting jets of fi^re and smoke 
from her nostrils and lips, and making night generally 
hideous by weird and uncouth antics. 

When I was too busy to admit of a ride during the 
day, which was often the case, I took the Kloof by 
moonlight or in the dark, and managed usually to 
pass my evenings in the vicinity of this apparition, 
though nearly every night promising myself that if I 
escaped facing anything supernatural that time, I 
would thereafter stop in town after nightfall ; but as 
I had a solid compact with my hostess to sit up for 
me till a specified hour, — a guarantee that I should 
find the house illumined by earthly lights, — and as 
ghosts lose their terrors when a long way off, I 
always broke that promise when the time came 
around, even if I repented when nearing the haunted 
gorge. The Captain was a nocturnal wanderer, ap- 
parently in quest of living shapes rather than sprites, 
and as I usually met him both going and coming, the 
encounter added to my courage. 



150 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

Among the principal curiosities here is the south- 
east wind ; of which, though all say that when it blows 
in winter the case is exceptional, we had during our 
stay three lively samples, not one of which lasted 
less than three days. Before it commences an 
immense white cloud gathers on the summits of 
Table Mountain and the Twelve Apostles, and, though 
elsewhere the sky remains perfectly clear, never 
leaves for a moment as long as the gale lasts. Col- 
umns of this cloud are continually rushing down the 
gorges of the mountains to the distance of about a 
thousand feet, when, meeting a warmer stratum of 
air, they dissolve and disappear. This cloud is called 
"the table-cloth" by the inhabitants, and when it 
begins to accumulate it is time to get in the light 
clothes-lines and put a few reefs in the street-awnings 
and circus-tents. 

If this wind blew steadily at an average force, it 
would be but an ordinarily hard gale ; but it lulls for 
a few minutes, and then comes down with a mad rush, 
carrying before it dust, gravel (the stereotyped de- 
scription includes cobble-stones, but as my observa- 
tions were made in winter I draw the line at gravel), 
all hats not v/ell-secured, and often the owners with 
them. When the hat of an old resident blows off, he 
isn't seized with the temporary fit of dementia noticed 
in other localities, but seems resigned and immedi- 
ately repairs to his hatter's, or calls at the house of a 
freind or neighbor to borrow one. 

One of the ladies of my mountain-retreat (not the 
ghost) was taken from her feet by one of these gusts. 



THE SOUTHEAST WIND. 151 

carried some distance, and thrown upon a pile of 
rocks, receiving injuries on account of which she was 
unable to walk for three weeks. It was through 
acting as ad interim surgeon, pending the arrival of a 
more expert practitioner from town, that I became 
acquainted, and learned of the spectral visitant. A 
ship-master is a Jack-at-all-trades, and must not hes- 
itate to repair anything short of a broken neck, a 
political rupture, or a ship strewn all along the beach. 
My horse and myself never suffered, as my nauti- 
cal ear would detect the disturbance in season to 
haul to the wind, or, if the situation were favorable 
for a flight over a precipice, to dismount and take up 
a position for defence. I often thought a low posi- 
tion would be safer, but it was the old story, — 

" A falcon flown, a greyhound strayed," — 

the reader knows the rest. Ever since I first dis- 
covered that it was more fun to skate over a weak 
place in the ice than where it was perfectly solid, or 
to write for the public instead of to my friends, I 
have had more or less difficulty in staying in safe 
places. 

It is a usual thing for sailors to associate the winds 
with H. S. H. Prince Lucifer, particularly when they 
are attended with an extra dash of " cussedness ; " 
and I think this is one of the best I have seen to 
substantiate that theory. It takes but a small flight 
of the imagination to regard this " table-cloth " as a 
living monster, continually stretching his tentacles 
down the sides of the mountain by way of clinging to 
his position, and alternately inhaling into his gigan- 



152 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

tic lungs and emitting with redoubled fury the wind 
that would otherwise be but an ordinary gale. Per- 
haps the Arch Fiend himself gets up there with one 
of his largest pairs of bellows, and uses the mantle 
to screen himself from the vulgar gaze of mortals. 



Chapter XVIII. 

Hospitality. — Amateur Poker. — The Forlorn American 
Fowl. — Local vs. International Rivalry. 

I didn't get very far into the country, the railroad 
people appearing to be satisfied, notwithstanding the 
fact that I brought some locomotives for them, with 
my remaining in town ; but as when a gentleman 
wished for my company as far as Simon's Town 
(about twenty miles), he succeeded in getting a pass 
for me, I am free to suppose that I needed only to 
have asked, in order to be transmitted over the whole 
line. I did not like to ask for one, lest I should be 
under suspicion of wishing to go ; but if they had 
been pushed at me, the charm of being a dead-head 
would perhaps have induced me to endure, for a day 
or two, the inconvenience of colonial railroads ; in 
which case I should perhaps have been tempted to 
make my pen liable to eternal punishment, by allow- 
ing it to tell the world that I enjoyed it. 

I am not complaining of a lack of hospitality. The 
railroad company is the Government ; and that 
being everybody, is proverbially nobody. Private 
hospitality flourishes. Among its chief items I may 
mention an invitation given by the South African 
Milling Company to two hundred and nineteen others 
and myself, to attend a lunch on the occasion of the 

/153) 



154 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

opening of a new mill at Ceres, about eighty miles 
from Cape Town, on the Kimberly line. 

We left town on a special train at nine A. m. ; 
arrived at noon ; started the mill by applying a hot-, 
tie of " Mumm's Extra Dry " to the big wheel (it was 
said that a man up above somewhere put water on it at 
the same time, but I didn't see that done) ; figured 
as experts in flour-making, even though we had never 
before seen any except that which had been cooked ; 
lunched at the hospitable tables of the company ; 
toasted the Queen, Sir George and Lady Loch, 
the Cape Parliament and Ministry, and the Trans- 
vaal and Orange Free State ; heard the band play 
*' God Save the Queen ; " and returned on excellent 
terms with our neighbors, wishing a long and 
successful career to our generous entertainers. 

My only misfortune during the day was the result 
of recklessly attempting to tread in the path of Mr. 
Winkle ; by which I got " bilged " to an extent as 
hopeless to myself, though fortunately not as disas- 
trous to others. One great drawback about travel- 
ing in British cars, is the fact that one must conform 
to the spirit of the majority of those in the same com- 
partment, or feel like an alien ; and when some one 
produced a pack of pasteboard warriors, I saw at 
once that my only chance of coming off with colors 
in any other position than at half-mast, was to affect 
some game not yet introduced into the Colonies, and 
which at the same time was known to be extensively 
used in courting the smiles of Dame Fortune. 

Judging from the difference between the impro- 



AMATEUR POKER. 155 

vised battle-field — an overcoat spread over the 
knees of the players — and the magic tablet which 
appears or vanishes at the snap of a thumb in our 
rolling palaces, I thought this would be easy ; but, 
alas ! I had forgotten about the sturdy resistance 
of the Children of the Mist at Killiecrankie, and 
learned when it was too late that it is unsafe to 
judge the prowess of a soldier by the smoothness of 
his parade- or campaigning-ground. "Nap" was 
suggested, and a hand tendered me in the most hos- 
pitable manner ; but I was forced to confess that I 
did not know the game. 

Now when I was a boy in my New England home, 
cards were deemed by most of our astute neigh- 
bors to be special tools of the Devil ; and we young- 
sters therefore held it necessary for any boy who 
wished to be thought spirited by his associates, to 
learn to play them even though they had to be kept 
as low as did the Bible in the days of Claverhouse ; 
but the game which prevailed at that time was 
euchre, one not well adapted to hazardous wagers. 
Even this game, when I found myself free to play 
it without giving offence to austerity, soon became 
with me obsolete. 

I have since that time now and then cheated a 
tedious hour by taking a hand at whist or cribbage ; 
but knowing that either of those would be con- 
demned as "fogyish" by players who pride them- 
selves on a steady eye, and thinking it necessary to 
vindicate the honor of the Stars and Stripes, I 
darkly and modestly hinted at our national game — 



156 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

poker. It was startling to hear several of those 
present declare that it would suit them, and I breathed 
freely only when they had become deeply absorbed 
in the first-mentioned game. 

This good fortune did not last, however, and when 
their generous hospitality demanded a change to the 
noble game of "bluff," there didn't seem to be any 
way for me to avoid taking a corner. The prospect 
of losing some money was but a small consideration 
in the face of the horror of confessing that I scarcely 
knew a "straight" from a "bob-tailed flush;" so, 
hoping I could disguise my ignorance of the game 
as a reckless indifference to the value of money, I 
valiantly purchased some checks and deployed for 
battle. 

I tried hard to assume an air of "show you how 
to play the game," but it soon transpired that I was 
not an expert, and before I had made much of an inroad 
on my first sovereign, my utter consternation at being 
expected to know how to manipulate a thereunto-un- 
explored "Jack pot," proved me an irretrievable 
"Tender-foot," after which I was soon "wholly 
retired " as one whom to despoil of his cash would 
be to leave in future only a second place to the sad 
tale of little Red Riding-hood. 

I do not wish it to be understood that I regret my 
inability to play these games. I regard them as 
sources of income to only the "Shady Few;" which 
fraternity, in case of infatuation, might often be 
one's only available adversaries. But a long experi- 
ence has taught me that I am sufficiently invulner- 



THE FORLORN AMERICAN FOWL. 157 

able to what is dangerous to many, to enable me to 
safely follow the questionable maxim which enjoins 
us, when in Rome, to conform temporarily to the 
manners and customs of that ancient capital. Know- 
ing this, I deemed it safe to play on special occasions ; 
but as I appear to be too tender for the chivalrous 
to pluck, even on holidays, and have no desire to 
play with the shady ones, it looks safer, when I wish 
to squander a few dollars in the interests of patriot- 
ism, to bet on American elections. 

Business, in this Colony, is just now at a pretty 
low ebb, in consequence of a vast amount of water in 
former mining operations ; it having often appeared 
in large quantities before a shaft had been sunk to 
the depth of three feet. As this doesn't appear to 
agree with the idea one gets from reading of the 
arid land of Africa, I will explain that this is not the 
kind of water which floods mines, and necessitates 
a great expense in pumping, but the kind that floats 
them on the stock market at a far too early date, 
and renders them more beneficial to the paper 
industry than to other interests. A sudden turn in 
a tide that seems to have rivaled the famous " South 
Sea Bubble " in the way of delusion, has left many 
who a few months ago flourished in their own car- 
riages, to wander about the streets vainly searching 
their pockets for a cab-fare. 

But the saddest appearance of impecuniosity that 
came under my notice, was the diplomatic show of 
our great Republic. It can perhaps best be com- 
pared to the prodigal hospitality extended to his 



158 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

■"'^sts by Colonel Sellers, without that gentleman's 
ucnce to show the superior digestibility of raw 
lips. 

vVhen I am at home, surrounded with the evi- 
jcnces of an accumulating wealth that is one of the 
marvels of the age, I can read of the terrible strait 
to which poor old Uncle Sam has been reduced by 
his prodigal sons of the last Congress, and wear a 
patient and incredulous smile ; but when I am in a 
foreign port, with nothing American in sight except, 
over a narrow door in some by-street, an efifigy of 
our noble bird so weather-worn as to be suggestive 
of a barn-yard chicken in a northeast rain-storm, 
grasping his bundle of arrows and faded standard 
with a death-grip that shows a resolution to be loyal 
to the end, the case is different. If I then receive 
an American newspaper on the front page of which 
is represented our care-worn Uncle, with new 
wrinkles on his brow, additional embrasures in his 
hat, and extra reefs in his trousers and coat-sleeves, 
sadly contemplating the wreck of his devastated 
Treasury, it is almost impossible for me to shut out 
visions of bailiffs in the Capitol Building and White 
House, and the Washington Monument and Statue of 
Liberty quailing beneath the auctioneer's hammer. 
What, then, must be the effect on foreigners, who 
can not appreciate at its true worth the dismal howl 
of a dramatic American newspaper .-' 

It may be compatible with the spirit of a republic, 
for the diplomate and his porter to occupy the 
same room ; but if a delegation from Parliament 



LOCAL vs. INTERNATLONAL RLVALRY. 159 

House, whose business is of a confidential nature, 
should chance to arrive when others are in the office, 
it is embarrassing for our representative to be under 
the necessity of turning out all who are in, in order 
to have a place for a private interview. Besides the 
one room, there is a stairway ; but a very narrow one, 
and common to a lot of others who do not have the 
American patriotism necessary to hinder them from 
rudely disturbing any diplomatic meeting which 
might occur in it. 

I hope vclY countrymen will not suspect me of be- 
ing unpatriotic. I assure them that the exact oppo- 
site is the case ; and if the people of the world were 
blind and unable to see these things themselves, I 
would be the last to divulge them. But they are 
not, and if our rulers allow our countrymen to be 
sneered at for the extreme parsimony displayed in 
the few particular items necessarily conspicuous, I 
do not wish it to be thought that all of us are satis- 
fied with a representation that would be unworthy of 
our country if it were but of one-tenth part of its 
present importance. I understand that as a repub- 
lic we do not care to make as much show and glitter 
as a kingdom or an empire ; but if we do not allow 
our representative enough office-room to do his 
business properly and with dignity, and enough 
salary to enable him to appear respectable in 
anything of a public nature and at least to show 
ordinary hospitality to a visiting naval officer or any 
distinguished fellow-countryman who may chance to 
arrive, why not retrench farther by giving the office 



160 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

to the lowest bidder, and let him take an attic in 
the cheapest part of the town, leaving our dignity to 
take care of itself, or to stay at home where it will be 
better cherished ? 

Is it the result of narrow-mindedness that the 
same man who would lie awake nights if a neighbor 
were likely to outshine him in any one particular, 
treats with perfect indifference the fact that the 
world laughs at him because his letters must be 
carried by foreign mail-steamers ; because if he 
wishes to leave his country he must sail in a foreign 
ship ; because if he needs to have the coasts of that 
country defended he must depend on foreign sailors 
to do it ; and because in a foreign court his repre- 
sentative must give place to one of a higher rank 
from a country whose population is less than one 
three-hundredth part of that of his own ?* 

Rivalry has often been condemned as sinful and 
demoralizin'g, and certainly sometimes brings to the 
surface very unenviable traits of character ; but not- 
withstanding all the abuse it gets, and all it deserves, 
it appears to be the most flourishing sentiment, and 
it seems to me that the greater part of what is worth 
the trouble of looking at among the works of man is 
the result of it. We see it between neighbors, we 
see it between churches, between villages, towns, 
provinces, cities, states, countries, and continents ; 



* I have been told by our representative at a European court, that at 
royal receptions he is forced to give precedence to the representative of 
Costa Rica. Yet at that time he was engaged in a negotiation of vital 
importance to the dignity of the United States, 



LOCAL vs. LNTERNATIONAL RIVALRY. 161 

and the only reason we do not see it between worlds, 
is because they are too far apart for the inhabitants 
of each to note the progress of the others. 

For my part, I am jealous of any planet that I 
think has been better provided with moons than my 
own ; would like to get near enough to Sirius to 
make sure that it is not larger than our sun ; would 
be pleased to learn that, taken as a star, it is bigger 
than any one in the nebula; ; and would like to know 
that our ncbulce are brighter than any others in the 
universe. Yet I have fellow-countrymen who will 
make nearly any sacrifice rather than have their city 
outstripped by one in a neighboring state, and still 
appear to be indifferent to the superior splendor and 
dignity of otber countries, because their glory is not 
displayed on the broad current of the Mississippi or 
on the superb bosom of Lake Michigan. 

If we ever recover from the horrible financial 
condition to which we are supposed to have been 
brought by that awful " Billion-dollar Congress," I 
hope the next one will risk putting us to the expense 
of a few more cents each, for the improvement of 
our representation. Our old soldiers now cost each 
of us a half-cent per day, but perhaps some of them 
will soon be driven by their consciences to com- 
mit suicide ; and if not, they will soon begin to fall 
off in the natural course. 



Chapter XIX. 

Death of our only Compatriot Fellow-voyager. 

I HAVE now come to the theme which I have 
avoided as long as possible, and should like to omit 
altogether, if I could do so without neglect of my 
duty as a faithful historian of the voyage, and with- 
out having the usual fear of my silence being mis- 
interpreted as insensibility. This is the death of 
Captain Samuel B. Kenney, of the American bark 
B. Webster, which occurred a few days before we 
sailed. Whenever death has entered the family of 
any of my friends during my absence, I have dreaded 
the first interview with them more than any ordeal 
I have ever been called upon to face ; because, 
although it rarely results in anything better than 
mutual distress, the force that compels one to rush 
headlong into the subject each would gladly avoid, 
and which to me is one of almost certain failure, 
seems to be as inexorable as fate. After having 
destroyed more paper on this than on any other 
subject, I have decided that it is nearly as paralyz- 
ing to my pen as to my tongue ; so shall touch on 
it but lightly. 

Bound from New York to Adelaide, South Aus- 
tralia, he had been taken with rheumatic fever soon 
after sailing, and after two months' illness, during 

C162) 



DEATH OF OUR FELLOW-VOYAGER. 163 

which time he had got so low as to be scarcely able 
to speak, he arrived in Cape Town, was removed to 
the hospital, and died there three days after his ad- 
mission. I was the only person in town whom he 
had met before, and our acquaintance was very lim- 
ited. As he evidently regarded me as the nearest to 
a friend that his sad situation allowed him, I called 
as often as ray business would allow, and, not always 
being admitted, the doctor thinking it best not to 
disturb him, either saw him or sent him a card ex- 
plaining that I came at the wrong hour. How hard 
to persist in seeing a friend who is dangerously ill, is 
perhaps one of the most difificult questions one is 
ever called on to decide ; particularly when he is 
not quite sure whether anxiety or indifference is the 
cause of his non-admission. 

What struck me as particularly sad about his 
funeral, was the fact that although he left behind a 
father, mother, wife, children, and probably innum- 
erable friends besides, he was escorted to the grave 
by only a few undertaker's men, with their wretched 
"trappings and suits of woe," one officer and the 
steward from his ship, two of his countrymen and 
one of his countrywomen, his business agent, and a 
half dozen foreign ship-masters. A short service by 
a clergyman whom he had probably never met ; a 
handful of earth thrown into the grave by each of us 
at the words " dust to dust ; " a few tears dropped by 
the only one present of the sex by whom tears are 
not erroneously regarded as signs of weakness to be 
hidden at any cost ; a surreptitious employment of 



1G4 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

his handkerchief by even the roughest specimen of 
sailorhood present ; a pathetic expression of grief 
on the ebony features of the faithful steward whose 
careful nursing had kept at bay the grim destroyer 
through two long, cheerless months ; a succession of 
awful, hollow thuds, as the shovelfuls of earth fell 
back into their place, — and that was all ! 

Some hold that these circumstances attending 
death are of very little importance in comparison 
with the fact itself ; but I think that as all are famil- 
iar with the thought that death is inevitable, and 
must come sooner or later, it removes the chief part 
of what seems unbearable in our grief for the departed, 
to know that in their last hours they were surrounded 
by sympathetic friends. Perhaps a death-bed beside 
which are gathered the near relatives of him who is 
passing away, is one of the saddest scenes the world 
affords ; but in knowing that we have seen the very 
last of a dear one, and that all that was possible was 
done to save him, there is a charm that hallows our 
grief and causes it in time to fade into almost a 
pleasant memory. 

On the other hand, to think that his last days were 
passed among indifferent strangers, even though they 
were learned physicians and experienced nurses, 
and that he died without the presence of any one other 
than those who regarded him as but one of a large 
number equally entitled to their care, and to whom 
death is but an every-day scene, must be an addi- 
tional sorrow to his friends. 



DEATH OF OUR FELLOW-VOYAGER. 165 

It therefore may be a comfort to Captain Kenney's 
mourning friends to learn that he was not left entirely 
alone while he lived, and that at the last sad rites 
there were present a few who appreciated the peculiar 
sadness of the situation, and to whom a future view of 
his isolated grave will recall a day of genuine sorrow, 
and sympathy for his bereaved family. 



Chapter XX. 

Kerguelen, and Adjacent Isles. — The " Onward " Mutinous, 
— Late of "The R n Times." — John Bull's Island. 

We have crossed the eighty-third meridian of east 
longitude at the intersection of the forty-sixth parallel, 
and are thirteen days out. We have now been at sea, 
since leaving New Haven, sixty-four days ; and are 
six days ahead of our previous record. We passed 
Kerguelen, or Desolation Island, two days ago ; but 
this time about three degrees north of it. This is the 
fifth track — all outward, of course — the Onzvard ha.s 
made past this island since she has been under my 
command ; and her passages stand consecutively 
sixty-eight, ^seventy-two, sixty-eight, sixty-eight, and 
sixty-two days from Long Island Sound. If we con- 
sider the great variety of weather and numerous 
"belts" to sail through, these are nearly close 
enough together to pass for steamship tracks, 

I usually try to make Bligh's Cap, a small island 
north of Kerguelen, in order to learn whether or not 
my chronometer is running right ; but having been 
in Cape Town this time, think it unnecessary. Ker- 
guelen is about eighty miles long by sixty wide, 
uninhabited, — except sometimes, transiently, by seal- 
catchers, shipwrecked crews, and surviving charac- 
ters in maritime novels, — and well deserves the name 

(166) 



KERGUELEM, AND ADJACENT ISLES. 167 

" Desolation " given it by Captain Cook. On our last 
voyage out we passed to the southward of it, and 
found that the small islands on that side are badly 
misplaced on the chart, whereas the position of Bligh's 
Cap appears to be entirely accurate. 

Solitary Island, the small one which Imray's chart 
places thirteen miles southwestward from Cape Bour- 
bon, I found to be twenty-seven miles (forty-two 
minutes of longitude) farther west and eight miles 
farther south than Imray's position. I had good 
observations, though it was in midwinter, a time, of 
course, not so desirable for accuracy as summer, and 
when we arrived at the coast of New Zealand found 
my chronometer exactly right. My confidence in it 
was temporarily shaken ; but when I had run upwards 
of forty miles, by the taffrail log, before passing the 
Benodet Islands, instead of the sixteen according to 
Imray, I decided that the suspected instrument was 
more reliable than the chart : and as the snow-covered 
mountains and ice-choked gorges of " Desolation " in 
the distance, the wild, yellow, Davy-Jones sun in the 
northwestern sky, and the mammoth hills of salt 
water that were rushing past the ship to join in the 
awful din at the foot of the cliffs, did not contribute 
to the restoration of nerves by this time somewhat 
disturbed, I ceased my observations and took a 
lively interest in every additional mile my gallant 
craft succeeded in placing between us and those 
charms of winter navigation, — and I have since be- 
lieved that there are places far better adapted to 
rating chronometers. 



168 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

While in Cape Town, I met a man belonging to 
a branch of our profession with which I had never 
before come in contact; viz., a "sealer." On my 
asking him if he had ever seen Solitary Island, he 
answered promptly that it does not exist ; he having 
cruised and searched for it, in order to establish his 
hypothesis on the question of seal rookeries : a nurs- 
ery for baby seals not existing in any of the islands 
about Kerguelen, all of which he had visited, and 
one being necessary to complete his theory. When 
I told him I had sailed close to it he was surprised, 
and I think suspected me of having been misled by 
an iceberg ; but I assured him that I could not have 
been mistaken, having been not more than three 
miles from it, and it being of a dark color and in 
every way unlike ice. I gave him its exact position, 
and though I do not believe it is large enough for a 
great colony of seals, perhaps on his next voyage he 
will achieve untold success, and I be an accessory to 
the most horrible atrocities, with no share in the 
ill-gotten spoil. 

The chart leads one to expect it to be larger than 
Bligh's Cap, but it is very much smaller ; I having 
judged it to be not more than a hundred yards in 
diameter, and less than a hundred feet high. It 
seems to be rather extraordinary that we should get 
so close to it the first and only time we have been 
within a hundred miles of its position, while it has 
eluded this man who has spent a good part of his 
life in the southern oceans catching seals, and who 
searched long and diligently for this particular isl- 



THE "ONWARD" MUTINOUS. 169 

and, both to supply his missing Unk and to secure a 
successful voyage. 

We have had decidedly uncomfortable weather, 
though of the kind that annihilates space at a lively 
rate, and thus far have had but one heavy gale. 
This was what is vulgarly termed a "sneezer," and 
in it the Omvard was guilty of some very mutinous 
conduct, the principal feature of which was that of 
heaving herself to in circumstances puzzling to an 
able seaman and worthy of study by scientific en- 
gineers. When I learned that we were to make this 
long and barren passage, I immediately decided to 
sacrifice some time, in order to avoid "harbors of 
refuge," devoid, as we are, of money, freight, and 
credit ; so have been furling the after sails as soon as 
I anticipated a hard or sudden blow that would other- 
wise have caused her — being in ballast, with the 
most of her above water — to bound up to the wind 
like a rubber ball, and, perhaps, get more or less dis- 
mantled before we could take in the after sail and get 
her off. 

At the time spoken of above, everything in the 
shape of canvas was furled excepting the lower-fore- 
topsail and foresail, and we were running as nearly be- 
fore the wind as my Cape Town tramps could steer 
her ; notwithstanding which she got tripped up by a 
monstrous sea, and came to the wind, positively refus- 
ing to go off again before we had rescued the foresail, 
which had blown partly adrift from the yard, and 
loosed and hoisted the fore-topmast staysail. She 
then payed off slowly, and got again before the wind ; 



170 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

but not before all hands, including myself, had become 
nearer dismayed than is usual with us when blessed 
with plenty of sea-room. 

Though my crew includes the unconquerable 
British tar, as well as some of the descendants 
of the ancient Norse sea-kings, the teak- wood-visaged 
*^ Filipino " — the despised " Chinaman " of the collec- 
tion — proved the hero of the occasion ; and scrambled 
out on the bowsprit in the midst of flying sheets of 
spray and regardless of the terrific shriek and roar 
of the storm, and loosed the staysail in a manner 
that reminded me of the days when the shadow of 
the Stars and Stripes was alluring to stout-hearted 
men : which shows that he has not yet learned that 
that gallant banner is now used, on "deep water," 
only as a refuge for those able seamen ( ? ) who have 
proved themselves to be thoroughly incapable of gain- 
ing a livelihood elsewhere, and are forced to fall back 
on charitable Uncle Sam, who will absolve them from 
all personal responsibility. 

This was the nearest to what elegant writers term 
a mauvais qtcart d' hawe that I have passed for a long 
time. I knew before that when in ballast and under 
all sail the Omvard was capable of some marvellous 
eccentricities ; but had to learn that she was equal 
to coming to the wind in spite of helm and quarter- 
master, with not a stitch of canvas set abaft the fore- 
mast. There was not much damage done, though 
the foresail got somewhat disfigured, and only the 
fact of its being new and having new gear on it 
saved it from beins: scattered far and wide. But I 



LATE OF ''THE R N TIMES." 171 

do not enjoy so close and desperate a struggle be- 
tween truck and bulwarks for the highest position, 
when we have in no freight to insure us a few shekels 
to be paid for repairs, or more particularly when we 
are bound to a port where there doesn't appear to be 
much besides war, famine, and sand-hills. One of 
the principal corners that I dread, as a ship-master, 
is a harbor of refuge, with no resort short of feeling 
in the pockets of my unsuspecting owners at home. 

Our amateur sailor, the ex-newspaper reporter 
mentioned in a former chapter, is beginning to bear 
up, notwithstanding a pressure of circumstances 
which at first caused him to drop a few penitent 
tears at the thought of terrene comforts so basely 
and thoughtlessly deserted. Being of tender years 
and belonging to a tender-hearted profession, he at 
first let fall a few of those pearly drops, which are as 
rare on shipboard as are the most priceless gems 
on shore. 

The maps of the Southern Ocean look smooth to 
the average landsman, and the temptation to get be- 
yond the jurisdiction of dunning landladies and 
tailors sometimes lures him into injudiciously escap- 
ing from those well-known ills, only to fly into the 
ruthless embrace of others he knows not of. This sad 
situation seems to have been the lot of our juvenile, 
and the rude waking was rather too severe. I cau- 
tioned him against the trial ; but owing, perhaps, to 
there having been a large amount of rent due, my 
words fell unheeded, as good advice usually does. 
As he is an "extra," thrown in as a sop to an over- 



172 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

dose of ordinary-seamanship supposed to be lurking 
in the composition of two seal-hunters among my 
crew, he has no very severe duty to perform, and 
has more time to devote to the dangerous habit of 
brooding than ordinarily falls to the lot of the youth- 
ful aspirants for the secrets of navigation who are 
on the customary muster-roll. 

I believe he did not succeed in getting placed on a 
newspaper-staff in Cape Town, but he tells what 
journal enjoyed his services in the mother country 
(an obscure sheet issued in some heath-bordered 
hamlet in central Yorkshire), with all an English- 
man's faith that the whole world will have heard of 
the most insignificant object in his adored isle. 

There are two things about England that astonish 
me more and more every year I live. One is the 
vast importance, power, wealth, resources (and 
everything else) of so small an island, and the other 
is the average Englishman's steady perseverance in 
the belief that these are vastly greater than they 
are, — more particularly those things which are 
really insignificant. Though I have never been in 
London, yet I think I can do mental justice to the 
immensity of that wonderful city. A city covering 
between one and two hundred square miles and in 
which are gathered upwards of four millions of people, 
seems to me so immense as to be almost oppressive ; 
but it requires the eye of an Englishman to see in 
the Thames a river larger than the Amazon. I do 
not mean they are ignorant and do not know the 



■ JOHN BULL'S LSLAND. 173 

proportions of each, but — well, the Thames is in 
England. 

I once had an English passenger, and, after we 
had exhausted all the known games with which we 
were familiar and no longer dared look one another 
in the eye and suggest to again resort to any of the 
ruins, we manufactured some small paper squares on 
each of which was a letter of the alphabet. With 
these we played a game in which each in turn drew 
a letter, and, if unable to form a word with it and 
those drawn and unused previously, which were in 
the "pool," threw it in with them, when the other 
proceeded in a like manner. While we used general 
words, our chances appeared to be fairly equal ; and 
even when, tiring of that, we resorted to those of a 
particular class, such as animals, birds, etc., I still 
had hopes of winning a game, notwithstanding the 
fact that English zoology and ornitbology were as- 
suming such alarming proportions that I momen- 
tarily feared ants would acquire the dignity of 
elephants, and fire-flies and beetles grow into rivals 
of the condor and bald eagle. 

But worse was yet to come. Either my evil genius 
or a hope that my profession would enable me to get 
an advantage by the change, led me to suggest 
"geographical names." With probably an inaudible 
and fiendish chuckle, he assented ; and from that 
moment I was out of the race. While I was madly 
searching among the letters for such words as 
"Amazon," " Superior," and "Biscay," at which his 
chances were equal to mine, he enjoyed a monopoly 



174 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

in the work of putting up whole columns in which 
he dignified with the title " river " and gave sono- 
rous names to the most insignificant rills in which he 
had ever lured to destruction the unsuspecting 
stickleback; dubbed "lake" and bestowed nomen- 
clature on the merest pools in which he had hunted 
the guileless tadpole or captured the melancholy 
bull-frog ; and styled " bay " and invested with spe- 
cial appellations the most obscure inlets in which his 
ancestors ever drew herring-net. 

I do not wish it to be understood that I am trying 
to depreciate England, in order that my own country 
may shine in contrast. No man ever felt more pride 
in the exploits of his ancestors than do I in the his- 
tory of England, which I regard as our own history ; 
in her glorious free institutions, which I regard as 
the parents of our own ; and in her ancient and time- 
honored buildings, monuments, landmarks, and asso- 
ciations, which I regard as the most delightful the 
world holds. If I laugh at her and some of her con- 
servative dependencies for ignoring many of the im- 
provements of the age which others of her children 
eagerly embrace, it is no more than one may see in 
many families. But as, according to Max O'Rell, 
Jonathan asks the stranger's opinion of his country 
before that stranger lands to get the first look at it, so 
John Bull stalks about the earth wrapped in serene 
consciousness of his country's superiority in every 
particular ; evidently thinking it unnecessary to men- 
tion it (which the sly old rogue knows is a splendid 
situation for his dignity), but only to appear as though 



JOHN BULL'S LSLAND. 175 

all take it for granted (which he knows how to do 
with an assurance that is inimitable). For this reason 
those who would naturally be prompted to praise it 
whenever opportunity should offer, are forced in the 
interests of discipline to take sides with the enemy, 
and aim a shaft at every joint in its armor that 
appears pregnable. 

If it were possible to suppress that horrid word 
" Britisher," which adds extra bathos to cheap British 
novels and absurd British plays by being made to 
issue from the lips of the preposterous caricatures 
by which those profound works represent American 
women (which the writer has never read or heard 
elsewhere, and which he hopes the intelligent reader 
or listener will always ascribe to its proper source), it 
would be of great assistance in the work of burying 
this shadowy and unnatural hatchet. 



Chapter XXI. 

In West Longitude. — The Threadbare Day. — Easter Island's 
Trespass. — New Zealand. — Poaching. — The Tortured Nimrod. 
— The "Wasted Cartridge. 

Twenty-nine days out, — latitude 54 degrees south, 
longitude 175 degrees 40 minutes west. Having 
crossed the i8oth meridian yesterday (July 29th), we 
must now appropriate a day to make good the time 
we have been losing — a few minutes each day, accord- 
ing to the distance sailed eastward — since crossing 
the prime meridian, and also what we are to lose by 
the same process until we again reach the neighbor- 
hood of that meridian. We therefore call this the 
29th of July also, and will find the date correct when 
we reach the east side of the Pacific, Yesterday we 
saw the new day nearly twelve hours sooner than did 
the people of London, but to-day we retire from that 
position and modestly accept it eleven hours forty- 
two minutes and forty seconds after they meet it ; 
only claiming to have seen the sun rise once more 
than they since we left the South Atlantic. 

I recently read in a New York journal that the new 
day begins at Easter Island, " 230 miles west of the 
coast of Chili;" and that "at 7.20 o'clock m Great 
Britain, the new day is commencing at another point 
of the world." Now, Easter Island is more than 
two thousand miles west of the coast of Chili, in Ion- 

(176J 



EASTER ISLAND'S TRESPASS. 177 

gitude iio west, or thereabout; and the "230 miles" 
is evidently a misprint, as the seven hours twenty min- 
utes agrees with its true position. But even when al- 
lowing them all their longitude, if that little people are 
misleading the rest of the world by claiming any 
right to be celebrating the Fourth of July while the 
boys of Salt Lake City, in the same longitude, are 
storing fire-crackers and preparing for fatal explosions 
and general devastation, on the third, they should 
purchase an almanac and globe, and look the matter 
up. 

As long as that of Greenwich is acknowledged to 
be the prime meridian, if anybody east of New Zea- 
land, Fiji, or Eastern Siberia, — or, in other words, any 
whose day commences before it is noon at Green- 
wich, — attempts to forestall Great Britain or the 
United States in adopting the new date, it is a clear 
case of trespass, and should be immediately sup- 
pressed. The United States (including Alaska) 
extends fifty-five degrees west of the longitude of Eas- 
ter Island, and only forty-five degrees east of it ;and I 
never heard of any part of Jonathan's dominions disa- 
greeing with the mother country on the question of the 
day of the year. 

As most people leave their geography either when, 
or long before, they leave school (and though they may 
sigh for increased knowledge of the other planets, 
pass their lives knowing but little more of their own), 
probably there are many who would not realize that 
the coast of Chili, being on the west coast of America, 
is in about the same longitude as Boston ; and that 



178 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

the position ascribed to this island is about the same 
as that of Philadelphia, while its true position (no 
west) is about fourteen degrees east of Cape Mendo- 
cino, the western point of California. I confess that 
nothing short of the continual application of geogra- 
phy which navigation necessitates, would make me 
aware of these facts, which prove the extreme absur- 
dity of the statement that " all places west of that 
position [Easter Island] have an earlier date." 

Perhaps there is no knowledge at once so easy to 
acquire and so sadly neglected as that of geography ; 
and after I shall have admitted that I should tremble 
at the prospect of being severely examined in latitudes 
and longitudes in other than those parts of the world 
where oft-recurring observations have absolutely 
forced them into my head, I hope the reader will not 
suspect me of boasting because I object to editors 
printing articles so misleading, even if true (and I 
think I remember having read something like it be- 
fore), without calling attention to the fact that those 
people are a long way out in their reckoning. As the 
tradition of the Easter Islanders states that their 
early ancestors came from some Polynesian island 
thousands of miles to the westward, perhaps they 
brought the day with them, and have not yet been 
told of their neglect to conform to the change of 
longitude. 

Their nearest neighbors being the descendants of 
the bounty mutineers on Pitcairn Island, — that 
Utopian people whose wonderful "happiness, simpli- 
city, and excellence " seem to indicate that the Bibli- 



■ NEW ZEALAND, 179 

cal malediction which visits the sins of the fathers on 
the children does not extend to the South Pacific, — 
and these neighbors being more than eleven hun- 
dred miles away, I suppose it doesn't much matter if 
they adopt a new day, year, decade, century, or mil- 
lennium, as long as they do not seduce the inhabi- 
tants of our Pacific slope into some sort of an an- 
achronistic, post viunditm secession, which will enable 
them to dive into the distant future, in the hope of 
thereby seeing the immediate emancipation of their 
adored metal — silver. 

We passed New Zealand when twenty-seven days 
out (this making seventy-eight at sea during the 
voyage), keeping well to the southward of it, both to 
hold the uninterrupted westerly winds and to avoid 
all risk of the Omvard refusing duty when she learned 
that she was expected to go farther, which she is not 
accustomed to doing before having a rest. Even to 
me it would have been a temptation, after my last 
experience of British colonies, to get ashore where I 
could have shouldered my gun without first going 
through the Court of Chancery and Doctors' Com- 
mons. This reminds me that I have thus far told 
the reader nothing of these delightful isles, to which, 
though volumes might be written about their other 
enchantments, I can but allow a little space for "the 
chase;" in which particular they hold the first place 
in my experience. 

Not far from Auckland is an island which may 
safely be termed the hunter's paradise. On it there 
are estimated to be a thousand deer, besides a variety 



180 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

of smaller game, — woUoughby (a small species of 
kangaroo), pheasant, rabbits, ducks, etc., — while the 
surrounding waters swarm with fish. The few days 
I have spent there, during which I have won many 
trophies, the chief and most highly valued of which 
was the friendship of the proprietor, — one of the 
rarest specimens of the human race, — are among 
the most pleasant of my life. The only feeling of 
sadness I ever experienced in connection with this 
island, is the memory of one day when I allowed my- 
self to be seduced into acting as accessory to a 
shameful case of poaching, and lending my assist- 
ance to a piece of most horrible cruelty. 

A shooting party of about thirty landed one morn- 
ing while we were at breakfast, and two of them 
came up to the house to get permission to shoot a 
deer, which they readily obtained. After breakfast, 
the proprietor and myself mounted our horses and 
went forth ^' to kill us venison," returning in time for 
lunch, with a fine doe which I had first wounded, and 
finally captured after a chase over hills and through 
swamps until I was in about the same condition of 
cleanliness as was the Duke of Monmouth when cap- 
tured by King James' troopers, or Lieutenant Gush- 
ing when he finally escaped from the swamps after 
destroying the Albemarle. 

As the others were unprovided with horses, we 
then rode into the hills to give assistance to either 
of them who might succeed in killing a doe (bucks 
were out of season), met one of them who had failed 
to get a shot, and later found the other, who had 



POACHING. 181 

been more successful. He had shot and captured 
one, and he told us that another had been killed by 
a third man, whom he named. I immediately looked 
at the proprietor, in order to note the effect on one 
who I believed would rather sacrifice half the deer on 
che island, than face such a case of gross ingratitude 
on the part of those whom he allowed to shoot on his 
:and as much as they pleased, but who knew that the 
deer should be held sacred. 

An almost imperceptible shadow passed over his 
face, a suspicion of sadness was in his voice when he 
said that he did not know the man, and we started 
for a distant part of the island, where we found the 
murdered deer ; a superannuated old doe, "potted" in 
a most unsportsmanlike manner with bird-shot, probr 
ably while chewing the cud of old age in the tuft of 
"tea-tree scrub" hard by, too busy ruminating on 
her approaching dissolution in the natural course of 
events, to be wary in detecting the tread of her heart- 
less assassin. "Few and short " were the sentences 
that passed between us, as I was too busy watching 
my amiable host and wondering what the end was 
likely to be, to admit of my saying much ; neither 
should I have known very well what to say, if I had 
been in the humor for talking. 

" Slowly and sadly we — " took her up, and, taking up 
the other on the way, plodded down to the beach at a 
point about two miles from home and three from where 
the murder was committed (arriving, fortunately for the 
poacher, after dark), and delivered both deer to the 
boat that landed from the steamer in answer to our 



182 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

hail : the culprit making no attempt at explanation 
or apology, but remaining on board the steamer where 
the friendly darkness screened him from the view of 
the noble, generous man at my side, who I knew 
regarded the gloom as equally friendly to himself. 
(" Noble natures blush at the faults of others, even 
when they themselves are the victims.") We then 
rode home nearly in silence, I feeling that it was, 
just then, almost a sacrilege to speak. 

This is how we assisted the act of poaching, and 
the "cruelty" mentioned above must be obvious to 
the reader, unless he credits the chief criminal with 
having the skin of a rhinoceros. 

But shooting, even in New Zealand, is not all 
"clover." When in Dunedin, I went with a gentle- 
man to his father's station to shoot rabbits ; and as 
they stick pretty closely to their burrows, the only 
way to get many is to have ferrets to drive them 
out. 

Now I believe I belong to a shooting family. My 
father was the terror of the cross-roads shooting- 
matches, and even when a boy I often brought in 
good bags of game ; more particularly, perhaps, when 
I acted as retriever for my two elder brothers, who 
carried the guns. A younger brother now will find 
and capture partridges where the average person 
would fail to discover a feather, and another is fairly 
well ornamented with United States Army shooting- 
medals. But I have to confess that solitude is one 
of the principal agents in filling ray bag ; and the 
greater the number of witnesses, the safer is the 



THE TORTURED NIMROD. 183 

bird or animal that crosses my path. To those that 
only fall victims to the persevering patience and 
cautious tread of the solitary wanderer, my gun is 
ever more fatal than to the clay pigeon of the tourna- 
ment, the duped puppet of the battue, or the rabbit 
unearthed by the ferret in the centre of a party. 

When a ferret has gone down in search of a rab- 
bit, with about an even chance of finding one or 
coming back alone ; when I know that if one is 
found he is equally likely to come out of the same 
hole in which his ferretship disappeared, or some 
neighboring one, after a lapse of time varying from a 
half-minute to twenty minutes ; when a genial host is 
standing quietly at his ease in order that the guest 
may enjoy ( ?) the first shot, and if that guest misses 
will fire only after the quarry has got far enough on 
his way to relieve him from all responsibility ; when 
a few school-boys are present and ready to bestow on 
the unfortunate who misses, a glance of polite impu- 
dence which none but a school-boy is master of ; 
when the ferret-boy is ready to earn his tip of a half- 
crown by feigning to be too busy with his charges to 
notice the effect of the shot ; and when the very dogs 
are lying about pretending to think the rabbit 
doomed without any assistance from them, but at 
the same time ready to improvise a coursing-match 
the instant they learn their confidence has been mis- 
placed ; I usually feel that I would give almost any- 
thing to be able to prove an alibi. 

I accepted this torture throughout the first day 
and a part of the second, when I remembered that I 



184 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

had come for recreation and not in search of martyr- 
dom, and was not bound to submit longer. The 
ferret had been down about ten minutes, and the 
chances of my hitting the rabbit had decreased ac- 
cording to the square of the elapsed time, when 
suddenly I dropped the butt of my gun to the 
ground, turned fiercely on my host, and asked him 
if he wouldn't relieve the watch and be my guest for 
a while; adding that I thought it a great advantage 
to have one. I then asked him to favor me by kill- 
ing a rabbit whenever he could, and if I couldn't 
get any in those circumstances, I would do without ; 
and it was astonishing to see how much better my 
gun would shoot after that. I accused him of filling 
his pipe oftener afterward, and declared that doing so 
was suggested to him by the disappearance of the 
ferret ; but as I had been too wretched before my 
self-emancipation to take particular notice, this may 
have been an injustice. As this looks rather disre- 
spectful to' a host, I hasten to explain that he was 
but just emerging from boyhood, and indulged in 
some " cussedness " that required payment in 
kind. 

One of the first facts with which my youthful 
mind was made familiar, was that I was in a position 
to become president of the United States ; and as I 
helped build fences at a period when rail-splitting 
was thought a recommendation for that high office, 
it seemed probable that I should. At that time I 
thought it desirable, but the charms of the position 
have since faded one by one ; and when I recently 



THE WASTED CARTRIDGE. 185 

read that Mr. Harrison had gone to shoot ducks, I 
awoke to a full appreciation of the advantages of 
private life. What a horrible idea to have it known 
all over the United States, if one shoots his dog or a 
friend ! 

Only a short time ago I shot a man, and though 
he richly deserved it for having "growled" at me all 
day for no reason I could discover except because I 
had allowed him to come with me, or because he 
had been "tender" enough to believe the man who 
had told us ducks were plentiful, yet he was not my 
intended game, and I maintained steadily that the 
shot had first struck the water and then " rico- 
cheted ; " which theory their inability to stop his 
grumbling seemed to substantiate. I could not prove 
this, however, and who would like to have a New 
York newspaper or the Farmer's Alliance get hold 
of such a story just when he was hoping for re- 
election ? 



Chapter XXII. 

"Round about The Cauldron Go." — The Lost Rudder.— 
Drag-steering. — The Jury Rudder. — The Immaculate Ship- 
master. 

We are now in a position in the acquisition of 
which I have figured largely as a spectator, — lati- 
tude 32 degrees south, longitude 1 10 degrees west. It 
has been a long time since I have let the reader into 
the secret of what has been going on ; the sole rea- 
son being that there has been too much of it to 
admit of many opportunities of spinning the yarn. 
To be sure, most of the maritime-novel characters 
would scorn to get across the Bay of Biscay in such 
a tame manner as we have sailed the last two thou, 
sand miles ; but then they are not obliged to act as 
their own historians, and the sanctuary of the 
novelist doesn't need steering, neither does his 
furniture get hopelessly mixed every time the wind 
blows. 

If gales, tornadoes, etc., were all that were neces- 
sary to the well-being of a maritime novel, I think I 
could manage one myself ; as one sitting at his ease 
on shore, well backed by a meerschaum and with one 
or two " infernal machines " (with the glasses) on 
the table, might conjure them up readily, — particu- 
larly those of the stereotyped class, which are most 
in vogue : but never having served as a butcher, I am 
afraid I should find it difficult to kill a sufficient 

CI86) 



"ROUND ABOUT THE CAULDRON GOP 187 

number of characters to keep up the interest of the 
tale. If one could allow his characters to live, and 
at the same time keep the reader's interest in them 
undimmed, as did Cooper, Marryatt, and such 
masters of nautical fiction, who have passed away, 
the path would be tempting ; but when he must keep 
the way for his hero continually paved with the 
skulls of his hero's associates, or allow him immedi^ 
ately to descend to the level of the impersonal 
"man" of the nursery tale, I fear it is too gory for 
me to tread. 

I have spent a good part of my life on the sea, in 
vessels every one of which had a rudder all the time 
I was on board of her ; and yet, until about sixteen 
days ago, I never appreciated the full extent to which 
that very small part of the ship is useful. Soon after 
writing last, I noticed the rudder was making more 
noise than usual, and on examination found the 
braces (hinges) were all loose, and some of the bolts 
in at least the two upper ones broken off. Being 
a long distance past New Zealand, going back there 
was not to be thought of ; because, even if we could 
manage to get there against the prevailing westerly 
winds, there was a large chance of losing the rudder 
before we could arrive on the coast, and in the win- 
ter the New Zealand coast is not a desirable place 
to do amateur steering with spar-drags and such 
curiosities, while engaged in the novel occupation of 
making a jury rudder. 

The only thing to do was to push on, though up- 
wards of five thousand miles is a long" distance to 



188 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

hope to carry a rudder which is " playing Isaac and 
Josh." In latitude 53 degrees south (about the same 
as Labrador north), and in midwinter, the water is 
pretty cold for amateur divers ; notwithstanding which 
the mate made several excursions down with iron 
bolts, which he managed to put through the braces 
and stern-post, and get the ends bent enough to 
keep them from coming out : but they would last but 
a short time before getting broken. It was several 
days before the final catastrophe (during which time 
my few dreams were highly colored by the continual 
thumping in the rudder-trunk, which was worse than 
nightmare, because, instead of vanishing when I woke, 
it only became worse), and when it came, though it 
was the very thing I dreaded, it brought with it the 
greatest sense of relief I have experienced. Most of 
our casualties come so suddenly we have very little 
time to fear them, and that little is nearly always de- 
voted to trying to avert them, leaving none in which 
to comprehend the possible disadvantages ; and, they 
being over, the exercise of our ingenuity in the work 
of repairing the damage, particularly when the expe- 
rience is new and somewhat interesting, leaves no 
opportunity for "daggers of the mind," which appear 
to be far harder to endure than real ones. 

During these days we had a succession of heavy 
gales, in one of which the barometer went down to 
28.20; just as low as I had ever before seen it, — and 
that only once in a hurricane in the North Atlantic. 
After it had risen, and when the worst of the gale 
had blown out, I told this to the mate ; adding that it 



THE LOST RUDDER. 189 

might as well have gone a hundredth or two more 
and broken my barometer record, but not meaning 
that I was dissatisfied. However, before it got up to 
within an inch of the "level," it commenced to go 
down again; this time reaching 27.94 (breaking the 
record by .36) : and I now record here, and wish the 
Fates to distinctly understand, that this is entirely 
satisfactory, and a higher barometer will henceforth 
give me pleasure. 

During this last gale the rudder got entirely de- 
tached from the stern-post, and perhaps, if the weather 
had been better, we might now have put chains 
around it and held it in its place ; but as it was 
impossible to get anyv/here near it in the large sea 
that was running, we could only get one over it, and 
heave each end taut forward, to hold the stock in the 
socket as much as possible. It soon broke off just 
below our chain, and the Oftward immediately came 
up to the wind as though she had long been expecting 
such a result, and was as well aware as the rest of us 
that the game was at least temporarily up, and a fur- 
ther struggle v/as entirely useless. She reminded 
me of a faithful horse, which has worked with might 
and main until harness and wagon are hopelessly 
broken, and then turns aside to browse while his 
driver repairs the damage. 

We were now in a position the opposite of that 
which Cardinal Wolsey bewailed; and after putting 
over a drag that we had prepared and clearing away the 
steering-gear, which had also come to grief, we went 
cheerfully to work to make something like a rudder, 



190 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

as well as to repair the chaos of split sails and demor- 
alized rigging aloft. 

I think I have several times made the point that it 
is restful to get away for a while from that " unco' 
squad " mankind ; but' I will confess that in this par- 
ticular case the thing has been rather overdone. 
When the nearest port we can make (Valparaiso, 
which must now be our destination) is more than 
3500 miles distant ; when we are in a part of the 
ocean at once the least frequented and the farthest 
from home, with the crew, sails, rigging, and every- 
thing else belonging to the ship in the dilapidated 
condition that is nearly always the result of a long 
passage in cold, wet, bad weather, and is now much 
increased by the late savage gales ; and when the 
rudder is lost and the ship heading — nowhere in 
particular, waiting for the construction of another 
under the extreme difBculties of bad tools, bad mate- 
rials, bad carpenters, no blacksmith, no experience, 
little prospect of weather suitable for sinking it and 
getting it into place, and the most utterly chimerical 
schemes for hanging and working it if all the other 
obstacles are overcome ; one feels he could almost 
welcome a trip on a crowded Harlem train on the 
Elevated, or even tolerate a view of the sad spectacle 
to which " rum" has reduced the New York " Cotter's 
Saturday Night." 

At first we made no attempt to steer with a drag ; 
but, as the wind was westerly, and our main object 
was now to get to the northward in search of better 
weather, by putting over an additional one, made fast 



. DRAG-STEERING. 191 

to a spar outside the lee-quarter, we got her to run off 
several points under the head sails, and without any 
change in the drags, we could, by setting after-sail, 
make her sail as near the wind as we liked. I knew 
before that the Oriward Q.Vi]Q>jQ.di a pretty good under- 
standing with the wind, but was not prepared to see 
them work together better than when they had the 
assistance of the rudder, man-at-the-wheel, ofificer-of- 
the-watch, and myself ; this, however, they did for two 
days, — making more to the northward than we had suc- 
ceeded in doing during the six preceding, — and no 
sailor ever steered her as straight as she steered her- 
self, when the wind was steady and without squalls. 

After another northerly wind (daring which she 
went about east) it again hauled to the westward, and 
by a little improvement on the drags we managed to 
keep her on a pretty good northeasterly course ; but 
as we had by this time got far enough north to ex- 
pect better weather when that particular set of gales 
should have become exhausted, as the wind appeared 
inclined to haul to the southward, and the work on 
the new rudder was nearly completed, we commenced 
in earnest to build drags with which to steer. The 
first cost us a whole day's work (all hands), and we 
steered with it two days, when it came to grief by 
the hawsers having got chafed off the after end. A 
southwest gale was blowing, and it was getting to be 
dark; but since we could no longer steer, and the 
spar, now towing endwise, was practically useless as 
a drag to hold her off, we worked several hours to 
get another piece of timber added to it, slung near 



192 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

the middle, the whole hauled out to a spar projecting 
over the lee-quarter. Unfortunately we had under- 
estimated the vicious qualities of this last piece of 
timber, which immediately assumed the role of a 
living monster and resorted to about the same tactics 
to escape that are employed by a harpooned porpoise, 
but with a strength and ferocity nearer to those of a 
whale. 

Its earliest struggles for freedom resulted in the 
discomfiture of our spar (thirteen inches in diameter), 
which snapped off like a brittle fishing-rod ; about 
fifteen feet of it, together with the blocks, tackle, 
and appurtenances thereof, going overboard to con- 
tribute their mite to the scene of general devastation 
in the wake, the whole dragging by a large tackle 
leading to the other quarter, by which we intended 
to shift it over if the wind should change. In the 
meantime my officers and crew were getting pretty 
tired and hungry, and when this last catastrophe oc- 
curred even the ^'■Filipino,'' whose face thus far had 
been as unchangeable as though made of the teak- 
wood which it resembles, gave an audible groan. 

I clewed up most of the sail that was set, and then, 
on the principle that a soldier can fight best on a full 
stomach, sent all hands to get something to eat, while 
I studied ways and means for getting the wreck into 
shape to hold her on some respectable course till 
morning. Before midnight we got it into "some 
liking," and I then thought I would give up the 
steering business until we should have some weather 
that would admit of our shipping our rudder. But 



DRA G-S TE BRING. 193 

when we had got a little sleep, neither the mate nor 
myself felt like allowing inanimate things to have 
charge ; so we went at it again, on a new plan, and the 
result was a drag by which we steered her until we 
got the rudder shipped, which we succeeded in doing 
after the other had been lost fifteen days. 

The sixth and successful drag was a spar about 
forty feet long and fifteen inches in diameter, scored 
at each end, and about forty feet of mooring-chain 
secured to each score. The single block of a stout 
tackle was then hooked to each chain, and the double 
blocks secured to a spar about six feet outside of 
each quarter. The bight of a hawser was then made 
fast to the stern over the middle of the taffrail, with 
ends about twenty-five feet long, each of which was 
fastened to the chains, near where the tackles were 
hooked, at the ends. When we hauled on the star- 
board tackle and slacked the other, the spar in the 
water would shoot out on the starboard quarter and 
pull like a towboat ; when, of course, her head would 
fall off the opposite way. We would then slack the 
tackles and allow it to drag straight across by the 
chains and hawsers as long as she kept her course, 
and when she left it, pulled on whichever tackle 
would bring her back to it. The other, its normal 
position being fore-and-aft, worked the easier, but 
chafed too much to allow the gear to stay on it. 

This steered her successfully, helped out by care 
in the amount and location of sail carried, but did 
not act very quickly, and I would not like to depend 
on it in close places. It worked hard, also, and when 



194 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

the wind was strong required the whole watch, with 
extra tackles, to steer her ; and I can assure those 
who may have occasion to try drag-steering for the first 
time, that spars towed behind a ship when sailing 
fast, in any position other than endwise, are fearful 
and wonderful things, and need to be treated accord- 
ingly . Everything must be strong, and men need to 
be cool and careful when working them. 

To make our rudder, we took a spar of the right 
length and about a foot in diameter, flattened it on 
one side, at one end, to a surface nine inches wide and 
nine feet long (except a place six inches in length, 
three feet from the lower end, around which to put 
one of the chains in hanging it), and built it up with 
three-inch plank, fastened with oak treenails driven at 
different angles to prevent their drawing out, to the 
height of about two feet ; around the whole of which 
we put two chain lashings, wedging them up tightly. 
We made a tiller at the water's edge, to which 
we attached rudder-chains by which to steer with 
tackles outside in case of the collapse of the upper 
part of the stock (which is not very strong), and rigged 
another on deck, to which we attached the wheel in 
the usual manner, having detached it from the 
steerer and improvised a barrel and wheel-ropes. 

To hang it, we passed chains around the stock in 
two places (first cutting a score) ; one in the place 
mentioned above (three feet from the lower end), and 
the other above water. These chains are crossed be- 
tween the rudder and stern-post, at which crossing 
they are securely seized together, with enough slack 



THE JURY RUDDER. 195 

on the part around the rudder-stock to allow it to 
turn, and the ends passed forward on each side, fas- 
tened to hawsers if not long enough, and hove taut ; 
the crossing thus sitting close to the stern-post like 
a saddle, and remaining firm. A contrivance on deck 
to keep it from rising up or settling down, and it was 
finished. It steers her well on the wind, and she 
will readily tack by it ; but when running, it has its 
own opinion about when the wind is strong enough 
to make it necessary to shorten sail aft : at which 
times it positively refuses duty and allows the ship to 
come to the wind until we have satisfied its arbitrary 
demands. This automatic process is fortunate, as it 
appears to act at about the right season to prevent a 
collapse from overstrain. 

The reason why I have been thus minute in my 
description of the rudder and the successful drag, is 
because the entire loss of a rudder seems to be a rare 
occurrence, which not one of us on board has before 
experienced, but which may nevertheless happen to 
some one who may not have the room for practice 
that we have enjoyed. The great Nathaniel Bow- 
ditch, who seems to have been an authority in loga- 
rithms, has given to the world a formula for the con- 
struction of a temporary rudder which I should think 
might prove a very desirable makeshift — for a yawl- 
boat. I therefore hope to be forgiven by any unfor- 
tunate reader who may not be interested in amateur, 
ad interim naval construction. 

My theory about the weather in the far South 
being better than in lower latitudes in the Indian 



196 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

Ocean, though we found it true again this time (hav- 
ing had the best about and to the southward of fifty), 
does not hold good in the Pacific. When we were well 
past New Zealand, it got to be as bad as it well could 
be, and kept so till we were well to the northward of 
forty ; showing that that old pirate, Balboa, took but 
a very superficial view of it before naming it " Pacific" 
in compliment to its peaceful nature. Either it has 
been the most persistently bad that I have experi- 
enced, or our lame condition has caused me to 
overrate it. 

Most of my sailors appear to have long since 
abandoned hope, while our " kid " has braced up and 
become a "handy Jack," making fun of a gloomy 
compatriot for his evident fear during gales. The 
second mate has seemed to regard the situation as 
serious ; but has worked hard, with a sort of desperate, 
" die game " air : and I was almost afraid the mate 
(who is fortunately hard to kill), about the time of 
the collapse of the fifth drag, was going to weaken ; 
but he came out in a cheerful mood next morning, 
and the success of the sixth made him fully recover. 
For myself, since we lost the rudder, and more par- 
ticularly since we got out of the region of ice, I have 
had little to worry me except the natural regret at 
having to give up the race in the midst of what 
promised to be one of my best passages ; at the 
necessity of making the dreaded harbor of refuge ; 
and at witnessing the extra wear and tear of my ship 
that must occur when she cannot be properly handled, 
and the crew are too busy at extra work to allow them 



THE IMMACULATE SHIP-MASTER. 197 

to keep things in repair and guard against their de- 
struction. As we chance to be in the very largest 
place on the surface of the globe in which old Neptune 
has entire sway, — a space of forty-two degrees of lati- 
tude by ninety-five of longitude, with not an authentic 
spot of land, rock, shoal, bank, or soundings, — one 
must be fastidious not to accept it as a splendid place 
to allow a ship to grope about at her pleasure ; and I 
have been fully confident of the ultimate success of 
our researches in paths new to our feet. I have been 
sadly neglectful of my navigation, sometimes going 
for several days without an observation ; only being 
careful to wind the chronometer and count the days, 
in order to be able to find the ship when I should 
attempt to look for her. 

I lately read, in a curious periodical called The 
Sailor s Magazine (but which I should expect would 
be more popular among "the marines"), an extraor- 
dinary account supposed to have been given of his 
own career by a man who had been a ship-master 
for thirty-two years, had circumnavigated the globe 
thirteen times, and had done a vast number of other 
things for which I have no space here. What struck 
me more particularly, though his feats were generally 
stupendous, was what he had not done. He had 
never lost a sailor by desertion in a foreign port ; and 
when he went to San Francisco in the height of the 
gold fever, his crew dutifully refitted the rigging 
(while those of other ships rushed mountainward to 
a man), and then sailed with him to China. He had 
never made a bad "land-fall," never called on the 



198 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

underwriters to repair a partial loss, and never lost 
a spar or a sail! 

Though he was rather too successful in getting 
"coals" every time he went "to Newcastle" (by 
which I mean tea from China, wool from Australia, 
etc., — all stereotyped cargoes and dear to the soul 
of the maritime novelist) ; though he navigated large 
ships with whole crews of " teetotalers," and when 
he had a sailor or an officer who was not one, never 
failed to get his name to " the pledge ; " I should 
perhaps have stood it all, with a becoming amount of 
envy, if he had avoided spinning this yarn about 
the sail. It is supposed to have been told by one 
ship-master, and to have been written by another ; 
but this proves beyond a doubt that no able seaman 
was concerned in it, because able seamen all know 
that if one had a "cherub" perched on each yard-arm 
and boom-end, and others circling around the ship as 
thickly as cape-pigeons, he could never sail thirty-two 
montJis in the regions which this man navigated, with- 
out losing sails, unless he kept them snugly furled. 

One of his stern accusations against his faulty 
brothers, is that of not reading the newspapers when 
on shore and employing agents to do it for them 
while on their voyages, in order to cull from them 
all the tales of marine disasters for future use as a 
means of guarding against like ones. He asks, 
fiercely, — 

"Why is this.'' Why should two ships be lost on 
the same place V 

Why, indeed? 



THE IMMACULATE SHIP-MASTER. 199 

This hit me hard at first, I having several times 
publicly confessed this neglect, never dreaming that 
I was thereby jeopardizing my livelihood ; but when 
I had learned what advantages he had gained by his 
extraordinary care, it struck me there were other 
means- — for careful thinkers. By this highly judi- 
cious line of tactics he seems to have learned that it 
is unsafe to run a ship on to Block Island, Cape Cod, 
or even the more yielding sands of Nantucket Shoals ; 
facts which appear to him to have been unknown to 
the numerous stout-hearted men whose voyages have 
ended in that way (many of whom have been no more 
seen in this world), since the first who tried the abil- 
ity of those barriers to wreck a ship. 

I myself have never run a ship on to any of these, 
and though it is highly probable I may have heard of 
its having been done by others, I now record here 
that that is not the reason of my not having done so. 
I have steadily used the best means in my possession 
(and with all due respect to newspaper items, I regard 
the careful work of hydrographers as more reliable) 
to avoid islands, promontories, and shoals, even when 
their geological construction was entirely unknown 
to me ; because, even if they were composed of the 
softest earthy matter our planet affords, I never 
for a moment doubted but that one would at least save 
much time by going around them : and if, in the fu- 
ture, I ever appear to have employed different tactics, 
and should, like many a better man before me, fail 
to turn up for self-defence, let it never be thought 
that I ran on to them through doubt of their ability 



200 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

to undo me, or from a hope that I might succeed in 
saihng over them. 

If the gentle reader sees no reason for this rather 
rude outburst (and there doesn't seem to be any when 
looked at superficially), I can only explain that just 
now I am particularly sensitive on this subject, and 
though such articles show their true worth to the 
able seaman in every line, there seems to be danger 
of their being misconstrued by the unsophisticated 
landsman. Unless he is genuine (in which case I 
hope I should be found honest enough to toss my 
cap with the rest), I do not like to see portrayed, in 
a periodical one of whose titles is T]ie Seaman s 
Friend, and which I believe makes no claim to pub- 
lishing fiction, a character so transcendent that my 
whole brotherhood must, by contrast, seem the most 
graceless pirates. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Sympathetic Apprehension. — Juan Fernandez Island. — The 
Home of Crusoe. 

We are now within one hundred miles of Valpa- 
raiso, seventy days from Cape Town ; and I confess 
to feeling a trifle uneasy about the outcome. The 
last I knew of these black-and-tan rascals, they were 
mauling away at one another like anything ; and 
though they appear to have a happy genius for mix- 
ing war with their other daily pursuits, it seems such 
an unpoetical change to come so suddenly down from 
pike and bayonet to the hammer and calking-mallet, 
that I cannot help feeling guilty of conducting my 
ship to a hard surgery. Though I have, as before 
confessed, a lively curiosity to see a little of war, a 
long habit of loyalty to ship and owners makes it 
seem uncanny to beard such a lion in his den ; and 
while my charter bids me enter the country, and in 
the part where most of the fighting of which I have 
heard has been done, the fact that this port is to a 
certain extent of my own choosing, and that once in 
she must stay until repaired, if it be till doomsday, 
makes me feel a shadow of responsibility for any 
" pickle " into which my ship may get. 

I have always regarded a ship as something almost 
endowed with life, but have never felt that fancy to 

C201J 



202 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

be so nearly irresistible as since this misfortune oc- 
curred to the Onward. When she has one of her 
spells (which occur several times a day when the 
weather is unsettled) of ignoring my new rudder and 
refusing to be steered by it until I have patted her 
on the back and taken in some of the after-canvas, it 
looks so much as though she shares my feeling of 
uneasiness and is half-inclined to protest against the 
whole thing, that I shall not be very much surprised 
if she soon tries a verbal argument, or at least gives 
a whinny of dismay or a growling bark of disapproval. 
It is almost pathetic to see her push along as if re- 
solved to make the best of things, and then, when the 
wind comes strong, — increasing my own undefined 
anxiety in the same ratio as the increase of speed 
toward the unknown situation, — give it up, come to 
the wind, and almost ask : 

" Whither wilt thou lead me ? speak ; I'll go no 
further." 

Two days ago' we passed the island but for the 
existence of which the reader would never have 
heard of the Omvard and her troubles ; as I should 
probably have stayed on shore and become a tailor, 
lawyer, senator, chief justice, president, or something 
else between the rank of boot-black and Elevated Rail- 
road guard. I mean, of course, Juan Fernandez, the 
resort of Selkirk, and, according to my hypothesis, of 
Crusoe and Friday. I was surprised to see a bold 
and mountainous island, with sea-cliffs nearly a thou- 
sand feet high ; having had the impression that it was 
low, with a flat, sandy beach favorable for tracking 



yUAN FERNANDEZ ISLAND. 203 

cannibals, enough off-lying rocks to wreck a ship, 
and a few near the beach to give interest to the 
process of swimming ashore. 

The southern shore, along which we sailed for ten 
miles (its whole length), nearly all consists of scrub- 
covered mountains and rocky-faced cliffs ; but now 
and then we got glimpses of spots beyond, of 
such a splendid green that I should think it 
might be a very Eden to any descendant of Adam 
who ever got shipwrecked there. Wild peaches are 
said to grow on the island in abundance, and goats 
still exist ; and on the north coast, which is easily 
accessible, there are plenty of fish : so I think if I 
could have the company of a lovely Eve, to act as 
caterer and connoisseur in fruits, I could venture to 
risk a few years there myself. One could then evade 
rumors of fierce Tammany wars, make tariff laws 
to suit himself, and at the same time have his bed- 
room secure from invasion by foaming mountains of 
salt water. 

The history of this island seems to be so mixed up 
with poetry and romance, that it is difficult to sepa- 
rate them. It appears first to have been exclusively 
the home of goats ; a colony of them having been 
introduced by Fernandez, the discoverer, in the year 
1563. In 1 68 1, Dampier, the explorer, who appears 
to have been largely interested in the question of 
man's ability to exist without associates, left a Mos- 
quito Indian on it ; he lived here, feeding on goats 
and without the pleasure of scalping an enemy, for 
three years ; then he was taken off by the same rover. 



204 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

Dampier was also in the ship which landed Selkirk 
there in 1704, as well as in that which took him off 
in 1709, after he had lorded it over "the fowl and the 
brute " for four years and four months. After Sel- 
kirk's departure, the goats seem to have held undis- 
puted sway, until it was invaded by buccaneers (date 
unknown), who treated them much the same as the 
Normans did the Saxons after the Conquest. Later 
a race of dogs was introduced by the Spaniards, for 
the purpose of starving out their enemies, the buc- 
caneers, by destroying their source of supply — the 
goats. They partially accomplished this, but both 
races were found by Anson in 1741. In 175 1 the 
Spaniards brought a colony, but they were soon 
driven away by earthquakes. In 18 19 it was made 
a Chilian convict settlement, but in 1835 the con- 
victs made it too warm for their keepers and it was 
abandoned. 

According to Cowper, Selkirk was "monarch" only 
of that part of the island which he " surveyed." 
Since I have seen the place, I think that must have 
been but a small part of it. With no one to help 
him carry compass, chain, or transit, he would have 
found great difficulty in managing the mountains. 
For the sea-cliffs he would have needed, if not the 
wings of a dove (which he seems to have lacked), at 
least those of a gull, to enable him to get even the 
ten-foot contour. 

I have heard it maintained that the island on which 
Crusoe was shipwrecked — his ingenious schemes 
for gaining a livelihood on which have been the 



THE HOME OF CRUSOE. 205 

delight of boys for nearly two centuries — was in the 
Atlantic ; but as he was the result of the story of 
Selkirk acting on the brain of Defoe, I cannot see 
why the honor should not be given to the island on 
which Selkirk himself lived. I am sure it would be 
very convenient to insure a natural supply of goats, 
and we passed an island the evening before we got to 
it which would be a splendid resort for the cannibals. 
As the breeze we have at present will take us up 
to the coast long before morning, and our amateur 
rudder will engross our whole attention as we ap- 
proach land, I will now again sheathe the pen and 
draw the sword, until I shall have escaped and am 
again on the high seas. 



Chapter XXIV. 

Chili. — Off for Pisagua. — Valparaiso Harbor. — The Wreck. 
— Our New Navy. — Attack on the "Baltimore's" Crew. 

With a few new wings and a new rudder, — the 
latter causing lier to feel less repulsion than formerly 
at her transition from one of the bowers of Kauri 
gum merchants to a mere pawn on the chessboard 
of the American nitrate king, — the Onward is flying 
up the coast at the speed of ten knots, after a rest (i*) 
of nearly forty days. Her destination is now Pisa- 
gua; the great gamester who has got her in hand 
having decided to move her to that square. I believe 
this is the meanest of all mean places that we have 
had under discussion ; and as my orders are now final 
as far as loading is concerned, and the United States 
coast between Savannah and Boston (where we are to 
discharge) is not fitted out with a" desert, it is prob- 
ably meaner than any which is to come in the future. 
A desert is bearable when it is slightly metropolitan, 
as at Iquique, if for no other reason than that there 
one has companions in misery ; but when victims are 
scarce, as at Pisagua, it requires more fortitude to 
invade one. 

Valparaiso has about the most uncomfortable har^ 
bor (if I may be allowed to dignify it by that name) 
in which the Onward has ever met the elves of Nep- 

(206) 



VALPARAISO HARBOR. 207 

tune face to face. She has been in some with as 
little shelter ; but then one could let go the second 
anchor when the wind blew, and not have the un- 
comfortable thought that it might be appropriated 
by some vicious heathen on the banks of the Yang- 
tse-Kiang River, and worked up into railroad iron or 
fish-hooks. 

I believe there are cases on record of soundings 
having been found in this bay, and I have even heard 
of ships having hove up their own anchors after their 
having actually taken bottom ; but the Onward' syNXXxd.- 
lass not having been built that way, whenever I had 
finished using an anchor I dutifully and without a 
struggle passed the unshackled chain to a steamer 
fitted with strong machinery for the purpose, and 
paid the penalty in pounds sterling, reduced at an 
additional expense to an extraordinary number of 
promises to pay which these hopeful people dignify 
with the title " National Dollars," and which are to 
be redeemed at some remote future period when hon- 
esty shall have become fashionable in this curious 
land, and the term "South American Revolution" 
become obsolete. 

Ships are safe enough here, excepting in the so- 
called "Northers." For the reason that these were 
as entirely out of season as were " Southeasters " in 
Cape Town when we were there, of course the On- 
ivard enjoyed them for a week or two, to the utter 
consternation of those well-known and tedious peo- 
ple, "The Oldest Residents." Profiting by a blunder 
of a pilot and subsequent manipulation of thirsty 



208 UNDER COTTON CANVAS, 

officials by myself, after coming out of dry-dock she 
enjoyed the safety of a large, strongly-moored govern- 
ment buoy, and did not fall a victim to the wreckers, 
as did her only consort, the American bark Ahreid. 
She parted both cables and drove on shore, becoming 
a hopeless wreck and selling for two thousand five 
hundred, Chilian coin — paper. 

I made an unofficial survey of her in company with 
her captain, and it was a sad sight to see her lying 
there trembling, her bow all stove in from the rail to 
below the water, and the breakers and spray over- 
whelming her in a so-called harbor the same as though 
she were on a desolate island. If the Onward is to 
end that way, I hope I may have a presentiment of 
it in season for me to promote the mate for a voyage, 
on the plan in pursuance of which one hires a stranger 
to kill a favorite clog whom age or infirmity has made 
unfit to live. The captain who sailed in her died 
about two weeks before her arrival, and the mate had 
just received a cablegram from the owners to continue 
in command, the evening before she drove on shore. 
I have now met two American sailing-vessels since 
leaving home ; one in Cape Town, of which the cap- 
tain died while there, and this one. This is a rather 
dull prospect for company. 

For the first time, away from home, since the 
Omvard and I commenced our erratic cruising 
together, we have seen the American ensign floating 
over vessels which promise some protection to it. 
The San Francisco^ which sailed soon after our arrival, 
and the Balthnore, which has been here ever since, 



OUR NEW NAVY. 209 

though they are not invulnerable to the mighty guns 
carried by heavy battle-ships, appear to be good ves- 
sels of their class, and excite great hopes that at 
last our wary " Appropriators " have got on the 
right tack. We have several times met some of those 
ships with which departed admirals won renown, and 
though we have been pleased with the chivalrous 
attention paid to us by their officers, this is the first 
time we have felt both the courtesy of our navy and 
its power to protect us if occasion should arise. 

Our treatment at the hands of the Baltimoi'e might 
make us (if we were not interested in seeing our 
country make an uneclipsed show on the seas in 
every branch) henceforth enjoy being so nearly alone, 
that we may not have to share with too many others 
the pleasure it gave us. Not only did she keep "an 
open gangway" for me (of which fact I was repeatedly 
assured by her officers), but when an adverse " swing " 
threatened to the Omvard collision with a Chilian 
man-of-war moored to the next buoy, a "broadside" 
from her could not have more quickly resulted in a 
response from our gallant protector, than did this 
appearance of danger in the dispatch of one of her 
steam launches to our assistance. 

Whether this was the result of an extra solicitude 
for the preservation of the only unit present of our 
puny fleet of mercantile marine survivors (excepting 
the sad wreck on the beach and a steamer en roiite 
for the Northwest to serve a railroad company), or 
of that watchful courtesy which I never for a moment 
saw flag when between the bulwarks of even the most 



210 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

forlorn specimen of naval decay ever illumined by the 
bright faces of our boys in blue and gold, but which 
I did not before know extended all over the harbor, 
it enhanced my already exalted belief in the splendid 
results of our National Laboratory at Annapolis ; and, 
together with the beautiful array on the decks of the 
Baltimore, when we sailed past her this morning, sat- 
isfies me that if our law-makers will spend an almost 
unappreciable amount of our wealth in the construc- 
tion of ships, and encourage a small percentage of 
our vast population to inure themselves to the service 
of Neptune, we can have a navy second to none afloat, 
and assure to our flag the respect abroad that will be 
commensurate with the importance and resources of 
the land which lies beneath its waving folds at home. 

The late rebellion had assumed the dignity of a 
revolution before our arrival, the final struggle having 
occurred nearly two weeks before at Placilla, about 
five miles from Valparaiso on the Santiago road. 
This battle was the last of a series that occurred near 
here, and resulted in the annihilation of the National 
Army and the downfall of the "Balmaceda " Govern- 
ment ; since which time there has been no fighting, 
but enough murder to give an interest to life. One 
never realizes how convenient it is to live, until he 
sees a fair number of chances of being knocked on the 
head. During the night following the battle there 
were large numbers killed in the streets, apparently 
for the fun of the thing. Since then, we have only 
now and then found a scattering one down. 

The last outrage with which I came in contact, 



ATTACK ON THE "BALTIMORE'S'' CREW. 211 

was a successful attempt of the rabble (and I think, 
also, some of the police) to murder some of the crew 
of the United States Ship Baltiniore. I sailed 
before they had all been found, but as far as was 
known at the time of my departure only one was 
dead, though many more were seriously wounded. I 
arrived on the scene only after the murder was over, 
and, seeing some of the crowd climb up on the wheel 
of a cart, look into it and, after saying some con- 
temptuous thing in Spanish with the word "Yankee" 
conspicuous in the middle of it, get down again, I 
got up myself and found this man thrown into a cor- 
ner like an old coat. I arranged him more comforta- 
bly and examined him, but though he was not yet 
dead, it did not require much skill to see he soon 
would be. While I was trying to find others, the 
cart was driven off and I could not learn where it had 
gone. I called on board the Baltimore as I went off 
to my ship, and described him so that they told his 
name — Riggin, a boatswain's mate.* My indigna- 
tion, which was intense before, was increased when I 
learned that this was a born American, brought up in 
the United States Navy, and one of the best be- 

* My careful explanation of who Riggin was, seems, since I have 
arrived home, somewhat superfluous. Never did I realize what it 
means to wear the livery of a government, until this man — this sailor 
in a blue serge shirt and trousers, in whom I saw nothing but a poor 
unfortunate victim of a ruthless mob, and in whom I no more thought 
I saw an equal than I should have thought of sending my card to the 
lookout-man when I went on board his ship — was brought home and 
buried with national honors and funeral pomp equal to what he would 
have received had he been a renowned admiral ! 

When I found that sad-looking pile of soiled and bloody clothing in 
the corner of that rude mule-cart, where my attention had been called 
to it by a contemptuous exclamation by one of a mob of Chilian savages; 



212 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

haved and most efficient petty officers in the sliip • 
and on the following day I gave some unofficial opin- 
ions of the brutality which caused his death, that 
were held by some who heard them to be highly 
injudicious. I even overheard a prophecy of a funeral 
in which I was to take a leading part ; but when I 
emerged from behind a screen where I had been 
arranging accounts with a ship-chandler's clerk and 
reminded the speaker that his mourning was prema- 
ture, he appeared somewhat dismayed. He had be- 
fore asserted without a blush that this murder was a 
very natural result of allowing American sailors to 
come on shore, which opinion had provoked a little 
of the eloquence which he supposed might lead to 
the above-named ceremony ; but to be taken red- 
handed in foretelling the demise of one who was 
nearer than he supposed, caused him temporary em- 
barrassment. I mention this because, in Chili, 
embarrassment seems to be rare. 

The captain gf the Balti7nore appeared to be 
wonderfully cool in the circumstances, but if it should 
happen in the course of events that his ship should 
be employed by Uncle Sam in the way of retribution, 

when, after pulling it out into the moonlight and wiping the still un- 
dried blood from the ghastly face of its inmate, I saw nothing to dis- 
tinguish it from the hundreds of uniforms to be seen on board any 
American war-ship, except the anchor on the sleeve of the shirt, — the 
badge of a petty officer, — how I should have been startled had I been 
told that it covered one of the few whose names are long to be familiar 
to every one from Eastport to San Francisco, from Lake Superior to 
the Mexican Gulf! Had he met death in the usual manner, the fact 
would probably have been known to but a few hundred people. As a 
proof of insult from one nation to another, his death stirred the resent- 
ment of every patriot among sixty-live millions ! 



ATTACK ON THE "BALTIMORE'S" CREW. 213 

I think it would be that of the finest quality. He 
thinks there is no good reason why he should keep 
hundreds of men on board the ship all the time they 
are on the station, and that if it is a fact that Ameri- 
cans cannot walk the streets of a South American 
town without being attacked and murdered, it is 
about time to know it ; and I fully agree with him. 
I am now satisfied that this is about the 
situation, these rascals appearing to think that those 
who took no part in establishing their new govern- 
ment should not expect any protection from it. 

Many held that the captain should not have 
allowed his men to go on shore, when there was ill- 
feeling against the United States which might get 
them into trouble. But is not this a good reason for 
his letting them go } Is his duty to save the lives 
of his crew at the expense of his country's honor, 
or to sacrifice every life on board his ship rather 
than accept the position that while those of other 
nations are allowed on shore, American sailors must 
remain on board because, forsooth ! they did not 
assist in the destruction of a sister government .-' 

]\Iany tried to explain the matter away by saying 
it was but the conventional drunken-sailor row. But 
are drunken sailors usually hunted to death by a 
mob of twenty to one .'' Has it suddenly become so 
unpopular to get drunk that he who does so gets 
torn to pieces by a horde of rufifians the moment it 
becomes dark 1 Are American sailors the only ones 
who get drunk .'' 

The writer's experience of sailors points to the 



214 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

fact that when intoxicated they rarely meet with 
worse punishment than a black eye or a " dishevelled " 
nose. He can also declare that he found fifteen of 
these men after the hunt was over, and but one of 
them showed symptoms of having been drinking to 
any extent. Even he was not badly out of condition, 
and only showed that his sheets were flowing by 
being rather more redolent of "men in buckram" 
than his hunted appearance seemed to substantiate. 

Judging from a study of the situation for forty 
days, and from the tone of the mob on the streets 
that night, I am sure that if these men had been 
differently dressed, they would have been unmo- 
lested ; and that it was the United States uniform, 
rather than the sailor, which was the object of the 
attack. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Neutral Uncle Sam Unpopular. — Projected Revenge. — Bal- 
MACEDA, The Ogre. — The Chilian Times. — A " Balmaceda Man." 
— The Reason Why. 

Why the United States Government is in disfavor 
here, is, as far as I can learn, because it commit- 
ted the crime of scrupulously observing neutrality, — 
in contrast with some other foreign governments 
whose neutrality has been a little one-sided ; and, 
fortunately for their present popularity, on the right 
(or winning) side. There are a large number of 
foreigners resident here, and many of them appear 
to have observed golden silence while one side was in 
power, and to have taken a decided stand with the 
other — since the final struggle. Jonathan seems to 
take but a small part in this popular war-cry-after- 
the-war-is-over, and that keeps the natives in doubt 
about his loyalty. They like to be steadily patted on 
the back in all their atrocities, and I am sorry to say 
get this done by a large percentage of those who were 
certainly taught in their childhood to feel toward 
such things nothing but repulsion. 

Of all paths to be pursued at a period of strife, 
perhaps that of strict neutrality is the most thorny. 
Whichever side is taken, there is always some hope 
that that side may win, and popularity be thus 

C2153 



216 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

assured ; and if it loses, the case is so clear against 
the defeated partisan that there is no spice to any 
attack which may be made on him, and the assailant 
is soon forced, by the insipidity of the subject, to 
desist. But the fastidiously neutral are fair game 
for whichever party is in power ; every attack made 
on them has the charm of novelty, and is eagerly 
caught and swallowed by the unthinking mob with 
the undiscriminating appetite of an ostrich. 

I have always admired Uncle Sam for his gener- 
osity in allowing fair play to all with whom he comes 
in contact, and particularly for his polite conduct 
toward the sun. This is an orb which has long been 
in the habit of rising and setting on nearly every- 
thing, and I have hitherto noted with satisfaction 
that it was allowed to include the United States in 
this privilege ; but since I have been in Chili, I have 
decided that if we adopted a policy which would pro- 
hibit it from performing the latter office of setting 
for us, it would perhaps lead us to get on to the 
popular side whenever it would pay. I understand 
that we do not want people who find greater diffi- 
culty than we do in the work of running a republic 
to take any part in running ours, as doing so is already 
quite difficult enough, without lowering the average 
of brain-culture : but in order to prevent the sun 
from setting on our dominions, and at the same time 
compete with our neighbors in point of cost, it would 
be necessary for us to now and then acquire little 
pieces of land in different quarters of the globe, 
without wasting money as we did on our seal-farm 



NEUTRAL UNCLE SAM UNPOPULAR. 217 

which we find so difficult to fence (and whose seals 
fall victims to old Father Bull's fastidious conception 
of trespass, whenever they stray into the common). 

In order to do this, it would be necessary for us to 
dip into other people's affairs enough to satisfy their 
vanity, for the purpose of learning who held the 
most trumps ; to the end that we might come in for 
some of the stakes while the winner is flush. If we 
could not see the " hands " of both players, the rev- 
olutionists would be the safer to back. When tJiey 
win, their sudden accession to dominion to which 
they are unaccustomed, as well as the anxiety for 
countenance which is natural to all who have attained 
it perhaps not very honestly, would not improbably 
make them more generous than would be those who 
had only been assisted in holding what rightly be- 
longed to them. Expert rulers might look ahead to 
the time when habitual supporters of revolutionists 
would be inconvenient to have about ; but the novice 
would hardly see this in season for his seeing it to 
interfere with the reward. 

A class of men who may be termed " Itata law- 
yers " are among the most dreadful fanatics one 
meets here ; and they not only accuse poor old, 
honest Uncle Sam of having made a mistake in his 
affair with that vessel, but rave at him as vehemently 
for having overstepped the bounds of international 
law (which position they maintain and I am not 
prepared to dispute) in the well-meant endeavor to 
prevent some of his meddling citizens from assisting 
in the downfall of a sister government, as they could 



218 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

have done if he had loudly asserted his right to run 
all the South American governments to suit himself, 
or to fit out an expedition to make a conquest of the 
whole continent. 

I have heard various schemes for punishing us for 
having failed to interfere with what was clearly none 
cf our business, among the most harrowing of which 
were threats of failure on the part of Chili to shine 
at Chicago during the World's Fair ! Is it for this 
that the fair City of the Lakes waged that long and 
ferocious strife with Gotham ? Is it thus that, after 
successfully wresting the chalice from her Eastern 
sister, seeing it filled with the delicious liquid, and 
getting it nearly to her lips, she must see it dashed 
to the ground because her venerable and apathetic 
Uncle does not covet a nitrate mine or a South 
Pacific coaling-station ? 

Shades of Columbus and Cabot ! Far better had 
it been if when on earth ye had found an unobstructed 
passage to Cathay^, than that the vast continent to 
which ye opened up the path of civilization should 
be thus divided against itself! The only hope that 
appears to be remaining for Chicago, is that she 
studied her geography lesson with sufficiently good 
care to be aware from what quarter the terrible 
blow falls. 

At the time of our arrival, Balmaceda, the late 
President, figured as one of the blackest of black 
sheep who have yet fallen under the ban of popular 
outcry. The only way for a stranger to estimate the 
value of this clamor, was to note the ground on 



BALMACEDA, THE OGRE. 219 

which the attacks were made, study the people who 
made them, talk with those who did not make them, 
and allow even more than usual for the senseless yell 
of the many-headed monster. We at home know 
what a comparatively easy process is that of blacken- 
ing the character of a public man on the other side ; 
and if we add to our own vicious habit of giving 
credence to every idle rumor until it assumes a for- 
midable -shape, the ignorance which is the deplorable 
lot of the masses in this quarter and the corruption 
which keeps these republics so near to a state of 
bankruptcy that an inhabitant can never form any- 
where near a correct estimate of what amount of 
property he possesses, it is not surprising that one 
finds it difficult to separate the sheep from the goats. 
Cunning and avaricious politicians, with an ignorant 
populace to assist them, can easily shake the sieve 
when the moment is propitious for coming out on top. 
Though atrocities which would put to the blush 
the Khan of Tartary are generally ascribed to this 
man, I have to say that most, if not all, — surely all 
since I have given attention to the subject, — of those 
which I have had particularly and clearly explained 
to me (with the most savage indignation on the part 
of the narrator), should be regarded as but steps 
naturally to be taken for the public safety in time 
of war — where the standard of mercy is very low, 
indeed, as it is here. I have talked with many who 
speak well of him, and were loyal to him to the end ; 
and though I could not judge accurately on a short 
acquaintance and at a time when scarcely any one 



220 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

spoke aloud except to join in the popular clamor, I 
am confident those adherents to him whom I met 
were almost invariably of that class who are doubt- 
less among the best citizens of any state, — a class 
between the two extremes mentioned above. 

Whether or not he was " more sinned against than 
sinning," I leave to that Judge before whom he 
appears to have gone by his own voluntary act ; but 
since his tragic end I have become more than ever 
disgusted with the rancorous howl which the saddest 
of deaths has failed to check in any degree, and can 
only suggest that at least sympathy should be felt 
for one who appears to have been loved by many 
well-meaning men who yet defend his memory. He 
certainly had to contend with the most disheartening 
misfortunes that ever fell to the lot of a ruler: — a 
disloyal navy, and an army portions of which were 
continually deserting from his standard and turn- 
ing his own arms against him. Who would wish 
to rule in a country where honor is not held in 
sufficiently high estimation to enable the com- 
mander-in-chief to depend on the subordinate officers 
of his army and navy to tender their resignations 
and retire when his service has become irksome to 
them, rather than to remain and carry their whole 
commiands over to the enemy .'' 

There is a newspaper here, printed in the English 
language ; and when its contemporaries publish any- 
thing peculiarly absurd, it is translated and repro- 
duced in it. Matter such as this, together with 
some finishing touches and luminous editorials 



■ THE CHILIAN TIMES. 221 

supplied by the editor, provides the English-speak- 
ing population with some literary curiosities. It is 
highly amusing to read in an English journal (or 
rather one in that language) an editorial in which 
the editor — referring to a habit which the patriotic 
soldiers of the late Opposition, but of the present 
Government, have of discharging their rifles right and 
left when in the streets of the metropolis — ex- 
presses regret that they should be forced to use this 
method of scattering about "hurtling rifle-bullets," in 
order to let their leaders know that they wish to be 
disbanded and sent home, and are determined not to 
submit longer to "the demoralizing influences of 
military life," which appear to them to be highly 
dangerous to their morals.* 

So novel a method of showing the latent 
virtues which are probably lurking somewhere 
beneath the surface of their mysterious composi- 
tions (although the plaything used is of the latest 
make and power, causing the missile to search at long 
distances, with varying success, for victims) is re- 
garded by this editorial Mark Tapley as a very pro- 

* " People seem to have had some unpleasant experiences in Santiago 
during the last week. The indiscriminate firing of rifles into space, as 
an expression of dissatisfaction, scarcely tends to the public convenience, 
and those who had to walk to the station to the occasional tune of 
a whistling bullet, will perhaps be disposed to take a more unfavorable 
view of this ebullition of discontent than the actual circumstances 
warrant. * * * One might wish that their boisterousness should 
take a less dramatic form than that of mingling hurtling rifle-bullets 
with the less demonstrative elements of the atmosphere; but that the 
men of Pozo Almonte, Concon and Placilla, resent the idea of remain- 
ing a moment longer than necessary amid the demoralizing influences 
of military life, is a healthy sign for the future of Chili." [ Chilian 
Times, Sept. 26th, 1 891.] 



222 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

pitious indication of the loyal and tranquil conduct 
which is to obtain throughout the various ramifica- 
tions of Chilian society during the halycon days 
which are being ushered in. I agree with him that 
a less demonstrative way of showing their anxiety to 
retire to the chaste pleasures of mountain life would 
be convenient ; but I suppose this is far better than 
acquiescence in a life which might lead them into 
sin. 

By the time they had arrived at Valparaiso to 
embark, they had pretty nearly expended their avail- 
able ammunition ; and as their limited practice in 
that city was conducted only on one moonless night 
with an occasional flash and report far toward morn- 
ing, I did not hear of many of their shots having 
taken effect, and the nearest the Onzvard came to 
suffering was that one shot struck the dry-dock in 
which she was lying. 

Under the heading "Monstrous Atrocity," we find 
a decided proof of the unfitness of the late President 
to have lived on among a chaste people, in which we 
learn that this heartless wretch, " after mature 
deliberation," ordered the destruction of the nitrate- 
offices in the North (the only source of revenue and 
supply of that section), rather than allow them to fall 
into the hands of the enemy ! Who that has read 
history can fail to see the atrocity of this measure.'* 
Should he not rather, in order to show himself an 
exemplary father to his people, have drawn money 
from his own treasury and sent it to his hard-fight- 
ing rebels, in case the trade in nitrate should fail to 



THE CHILIAN TIMES. 223 

furnish them with enough supplies to enable them to 
reach Santiago with sufficient force to pull down his 
government and cut his throat ? Oh, dishonored 
Mars ! To think that a follower of yours should 
ever resort to taking over an enemy an advantage so 
contemptible as to fail to supply him with bread and 
powder ! 

In a report of the capture of a newspaper editor 
who was distributing inflammatory placards, we learn 
that he was "summarily executed and his body cast 
into a Jiole in No. 2 Cemetery, side by side with tJie 
bodies of Generals Barbosa and Alcerreca." I make 
no comment on this disposal of the remains of offi- 
cers who, whatever the character and conduct of 
their President and Commander-in-chief may have 
been, seem to stand out pretty much alone, in Chili, 
as men who knew their duty as soldiers, and who 
died without fighting against the flag which waved 
over the Capitol. It was done by people with whom 
I appear to have little in common, and whose ideas 
of honor I do not comprehend. 

But I ask the fellow-countrymen of the " Iron 
Duke," whose courtesy to a conquered enemy and 
whose chivalrous championship of a defeated state, 
against both of whom he had employed a large part 
of his military life, have been the marvel of the 
world and one of the chief glories of the English- 
speaking race, if his ashes would not "burst their 
cerements " in Westminister Abbey (or wherever 
else they may be), and rise in protest, if they could 
know that an editor who takes the position of the 



224 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

"voice of English people" could use this uncour- 
teous language when speaking of fallen enemies of 
high rank ? 

Perhaps the reader begins to suspect me of being 
a "Balmaceda man," or one who sympathizes with 
the fallen Government. I will suppose that this is 
so, and that he would like to ask me why, as I can 
hardly have much interest in Chilian politics. In 
the first place, I find it hard, even when my mind is 
as full of good intentions as the road to Hades is of 
paving-stones, to keep entirely out of a "swim" 
when there is an exciting one available. For the 
rest, I think I can safely say that love of fair play 
and respect for ordinary humanity would make a 
Balmaceda man of any one visiting this country at 
this time, unless he were blinded by party prejudice, 
suffering from misanthropy, or burning with political 
hate. 

While in Cape Town I read of the killing of Colo- 
nel Robles, the rebels having dragged him out of a 
bed where he was lying wounded and scattered him 
all around the room. This would have gone far 
toward making a Balmaceda man of me ; but fortu- 
nately I had then never heard of Balmaceda, so 
escaped the contagion for once. On arrival here, in 
answer to my question about the result of the war, 
an official from the office of the Captain of the Port 
told me that " we " had won, at the same time calling 
my attention to a large scarlet label encircling his 
arm, by means of which these people appear to 
specify those who are not to be butchered under cer- 



A '^BALMACEDA MAN:' 225 

tain political conditions. In the Wars of the Roses 
I think my ancestors must have been on the side of 
York. I was never fond of scarlet as a color, and in 
this case it was more than usually disagreeable to me, 
being too suggestive of the favorite amusement of 
these people. On going on shore, an enthusiastic 
Chilian whom I met commenced to paint the new 
Government in such immaculate colors, that if he had 
not unfortunately defended the above-named 
foul murder, I might have been in the humor to 
mount a red badge before night. He said that 
Robles deserved his fate ; but as we up North 
have no code by which we could arrive at this 
conclusion, and as I am confident that his chief 
crime, at least from a Chilian point of view, was 
that of being a loyal soldier, I did not accept his 
opinion. 

I then tried the latest newspaper, and before I had 
half finished the leader, but for an absence of 
proof and the fact that I at once saw how the editor 
was rigged, I could not well have doubted that 
Balmaceda was one of the most absolute wretches on 
earth. Among the first which met my eye were the 
words " Far be it from us to write in a vindictive 
spirit of the obdurate and misguided man," etc., fol- 
lowed by an indiscriminate thumping which made me 
tremble at the thought of what a desperate position 
would have been that of the writer if he had been in 
a vindictive frame of mind. In what language would 
he have found words with which to dress his sub- 
ject in those circumstances, when he was forced to 



226 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

exhaust the vituperative resources of the English 
dictionary in one of his mild moods ? 

All this had the effect of placing on his guard one 
who makes it a chief aim of life to try to reduce hot- 
headed humanity to a frame of mind — not to accept 
indiscriminately the opinions of others, but — to allow 
the evidence of their senses to have a little part 
in forming their own. Being generally suspicious of 
revolutions, I knew my danger of slipping into the 
opposite extreme, and guarded carefully against it ; 
but nearly everything I saw or heard only confirmed 
my first impression, that ignorance and fear (at least 
in this section and since its invasion) had been largely 
enlisted in the revolutionary cause. I noticed that the 
ignorant populace were revolutionists to a man, even 
to the extent of being ready to tear into pieces any 
one who should declare himself on the other side ; 
and the only way I could account for the better class 
defending the atrocities being committed, was that 
they did it as a shield — a kind of talisman to guard 
them against the danger of themselves becoming vic- 
tims. Many held that there were not half as many 
committed as there w^ould have been if the other side 
had won; but neither circumstances nor reason pointed 
that way, and even if so, when I hear people defend- 
ing a murder because under other conditions it might 
have been two murders, I am not going to enlist 
under their banner if I never have a flag under which 
to fight. 

The fighting strength of the Opposition had come 
from the North, a barren desert, while that of the 



THE REASON WHY. ^'21 

Government was from the South, the fertility and 
beauty of which one would suppose would more 
readily foster patriotism and love of country. As I 
write now I have only to look out of the cabin-win- 
dow to see a row of dreary plains, hills, and moun- 
tains, with not one vestige of grass or shrubbery from 
the beach to the highest summit, but only alternate 
clouds of light-brown and dark-gray earth, sunburnt 
and without rain since the birth of the Andes, which 
wring from the trade-winds their last drop of moist- 
ure, and release them to sweep over these blasted 
districts only when they have become so arid as to 
add to a desolation which can never be changed till 
those vast obstructions shall have sunk to a level, or 
the earth shall commence to revolve the opposite way. 

Perhaps the contemplation of this sterile landscape 
may have impregnated the souls of " the men of 
Pozo Almonte, Concon and Placilla " with a patriot- 
ism as pure as that of those who died in the Pass of 
Thermopylae ; but though we at home deplore the 
lack of patriotic and civilizing influences in some of 
our mining districts in the Alleghanies, and though 
the saddest ignorance to be found in Great Britain is 
in her coal and iron producing districts, I would 
rather attempt to develop a race of Arcadian shep- 
herds in the coke regions of Pennsylvania or in the 
" Black Country " of Britain, than try to pre- 
vent such poets as Wordsworth and Cowper from 
becoming cannibals if they were forced to live here. 

The tragic death of the late President and the way 
the news was received by the party in power, or 



228 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

rather those European satellites of it with whom I 
was in communication, finished me off as a South 
American partisan ; a character I thought about the 
last for me to assume. I was sitting in a hotel in 
Santiago with a few acquaintances, when a man whom 
I had not met came in and announced that Balma- 
ceda had shot and killed himself. As if by electricity 
all sprung to their feet, and one of my party began 
to cross-examine the informant, as I supposed to get 
a little hope that his news might not be true. When 
he became satisfied that it was authentic, the two 
suddenly clasped hands and spent a few minutes in 
such an ecstacy that I almost feared they would be 
moved to tears of joy ; and when it was over I found 
myself nearer to being overcome by nausea than has 
been usual with me since old Neptune gave me a 
place among the favored few. Their first burst of 
joy over, an attempt was made to introduce the new 
comer to me; but when the ceremony had but just 
commenced I interrupted it by assuring the introducer 
that I already knew too many of that kind. He then 
took umbrage, and said that perhaps he had better 
leave himself ; on which I gave him every encourage- 
ment to do so, and he went. This conduct I admit 
to have been impolite ; but I also once impolitely left 
a bull-fight when but three bulls had been killed, and 
but five poor old horses torn to death — only a fifth 
part of the show. 

In my company was a fine young fellow - — half 
Chilian and half "North American," as they call us 
here (a way of letting us know that other Americans 



THE REASON WHY. 229 

exist, though rather indefinite in the absence of " an- 
nexation ") — who had been an officer in the Govern- 
ment Army. He now rose and made a short speech 
which Mark Antony might have admired, and which 
"put a tongue in every wound of Cassar," while his 
eye glanced proudly and defiantly at the company 
present, many of whom wore the red badge of the 
new Government. When his voice died out, every- 
body appeared to expect some one else to remonstrate, 
but no one spoke. I stared at him for a moment, as 
mute as the rest, and then jumped up, patted him on 
the shoulder, confessed that I knew no more of Bal- 
maceda than of the man in the moon, but felt sure 
that one who had such friends as he had shown him- 
self to be, must be one whom it was safe to declare 
for ; and said I would take the risk. We got 
frowns from some of the company, and friendly re- 
monstrances from others who appeared to be sur- 
prised, later, to find me yet alive ; but we fought it 
out on the same tack, and walked arm in arm down 
the street the avowed champions of Balmaceda, dead 
or alive. We were perhaps fortunate in not having 
for listeners any of those unwashed wolves known to 
science as the South American peoji. 

I admit that if I had been carried to my bed on a 
shutter, I should have been in a position to be 
laughed at by any sensible person ; but I did not 
believe there was much danger, and if I was foolish 
to disregard the little there was, I can only plead 
that an unexpected display of courage in Chili 
proved too much for my nerves. These were the 



230 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

first words I had heard spoken in public, since I had 
been in the country, which I could be sure were not 
prompted by fear ; and except in very private circles, 
they were the first I had heard in praise of the late 
President, the question of whose life or death was, 
for the time being, owing to the great excitement 
which prevailed, of as much importance to me as to 
the gallant man who spoke them. 

To give an idea of the standard of courage which 
prevails here, I may mention that soon after my 
arrival a letter appeared in the Cliilian Times which 
had the effect of arching the American spine as well 
as of rearing indignant fur in some other quarters. 
Several letters were written and offered for publica- 
tion in answer, among which was one of my own. 
Mine was the only one printed, and between this fact 
and the one that it made a little sensation, I con- 
ceived the opinion that I was the coming literary 
king, probably gave myself Macaulay airs, and might 
have asked with Victor Hugo, on hearing the name 
of Emerson, " Who is he .'' " 

The reader may judge of my sudden descent from 
the pinnacle on which my imagination had placed 
me, when I discovered that the fact of my having 
signed my name to the letter (an art I learned and a 
deed I dared perform while yet my age could be 
shown by one figure) was probably the chief cause of 
its popularity, and, all the other writers having failed 
in this respect, was surely the principal reason of it 
alone being accepted. 



Chapter XXVI. 

The"Diez y Ocho." — Chilian Railroads. — Santiago. — The 
Heroes. — Their Escort. — The Cordillera. 

I PASSED the ''Dies y ocho de Septiembre,^' the 
Chilian Fourth of July, at Santiago, the capital. 
This day has an advantage over ours, as they close 
up business on the sixteenth and reopen not till the 
twenty-first ; which allows more time in which to 
seek a central place for celebration, than is enjoyed 
by those who hoe corn till dark on the third, and 
also mow before breakfast on the fifth. 

The railroads here are safe for a stranger to ap- 
proach. Though the British car exists, for the use 
of those whom a life-time of inconvenient travel has 
unfitted to enjoy comfort while en roiUe, one has on 
these roads, an opportunity of becoming an inoffensive 
unit in a luxurious arm-chair of a parlor car, instead of 
figuring as "wet blanket" to seven unoffending 
people toward whom he feels no ill-will. Not hav- 
ing been on intimate terras with the Provisional 
Government, — the new proprietors of the railroad, — 
contrary to my custom when it can be avoided, I 
paid my fare ; my chief regret at the necessity of 
doing which arising from a lack of the distinction 

(231) 



232 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

which "dead-head" travel insures one in many parts 
of the world. 

In this case I had little cause to mourn for the drain 
on my purse, because the Chilian dollar, though a 
mere atom in many transactions, — particularly those 
of an international character, — is respected by the 
railroads, horse-car companies, cabbies, and stable- 
men here, in a manner which excites the apprecia- 
tion of all who do not like to walk or spend their 
money. At the rate that exchange stood at the time 
of our arrival, a seat on a horse-car, with the option 
of traveling startling distances, could be had for less 
than two cents of our money ; and if one was not a 
sailor, and could therefore afford to forego the pleasure 
of gazing at the black-eyed conductress, — one of the 
chief luxuries of this part of the globe, — he could 
climb to the roof and enjoy, for less than one cent, 
the exposed seat so dear to Pickwick and other Brit- 
ons of coaching days, which may have generated the 
taste for martyrdom their traveling descendants 
display. 

Santiago is a town of about two hundred thousand 
inhabitants, most pleasantly situated on a level plain 
between the magnificent Cordillera de los Andes and 
the lower ranges of mountains toward the coast, and 
filled with wonder one who was indebted for knowl- 
edge of its existence only to an almost faded mem- 
ory of some harsh school-master's having insisted 
on a correct answer to every question in the 
geography lesson. The highest Andean peaks in 
this vicinity are : Aconcagua, who rears his proud 



SANTIAGO. 233 

head to the height of 23,400 feet as chief of the 
Chilian Andes, — no small distinction, — not visible 
from town owing to too many intervening peaks ; 
Tupungato, east of the town, 22,000 ; and Maipo, 
southeast, a trifle less. The only elevation in or 
close to town is the hill St. Lucie, rising abruptly 
from its centre to the height of several hundred feet, 
closely resembling the heights of Chapultepec in the 
suburbs of the city of Mexico, and the artificial hill 
which rises like the Tower of Babel from the centre 
of the level city of Bangkok, Siam. 

From the top of this may be had a view of sur- 
passing loveliness of the whole town and its sur- 
rounding mountains and hills. Its resemblance to 
that seen from Chapultepec, when only the foot-hills 
and lower ridges of the Andes are clear of clouds, as 
when I saw it, is so perfect — save only that the 
snow-clad peaks of Popocatapetl and Iztaccihuatl are 
missing, and that this view is from the centre instead 
of from one side of the town — that I could scarcely 
believe the beautiful wall of mountains was not the 
same which encloses the City of the Montezumas. 

Like most other communities whose situation iso- 
lates them from the rest of the world, these people 
are under the general impression that theirs is among 
its chief features, and regard those who are making 
their first visit to it as mere novices who are just 
beginning to appreciate the immensity of our planet; 
and though from a cause totally different from that 
which they would suppose, I am sure that the city of 
London (with the magnitude of which I have been 



234 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

familiar since boyhood, but have never seen) would 
fall far short of making the impression on me that 
did this boisterous, effervescing city, teeming with 
the life of myriads of human beings, and situated in 
the heart of a country which I had thereunto re- 
garded as scarcely more than a resort for mountain 
goats, pack-mules and condors. 

The great excitement was, of course, a rush to see 
the heroes of the day ; and my companion and my- 
self could think of no better plan than to secure 
horses and saddles and try to appear as mad as did 
the general populace. Heroes were plentiful, of 
course ; as any one in the uniform of a soldier of the 
line — a half-dozen yards of circus-tent duck and two 
distorted scraps of leather — filled up the position in 
the absence of a better : but not having much inter- 
est in these curious bipeds, I made it a point to get 
among the well-groomed ones, in order to see the 
accomplished object of the war ; the primary scheme 
evidently not having been to bring those obscure 
nitrate-diggers from their subterranean haunts to 
take a part in this periodic pageant. 

Of course the biggest hero to be found was 
he who had struck the heaviest blow at the late Gov- 
ernment, — the late commander of the revolted fleet 
and present President of the Provisional Government, 
Don Jorge Montt ; and as we had the pleasure of 
getting our horses hopelessly involved in the labyrinth 
of curiosities by which his chariot was surrounded, I 
had ample time to watch him. He seemed to accept 
his sudden elevation with a sangfroid worthy of Jack 



THE HEROES,— THEIR ESCORT. 235 

Cade, and appeared entirely unconscious of the prob- 
ability that in a short time the seething mob, who 
were so eager to see him and touch his hand, might 
be equally anxious for an opportunity to scatter his 
ashes to the four winds. 

If the immortal Barnum had been alive and pres- 
ent, I am sure he would have been willing to pay a 
startling price for us, in order to immediately eclipse 
all former "Greatest Shows on Earth," and to assure 
himself a name not to be outshone in the future. 
To attempt an exact description of it would be in 
utter defiance of my present intentions in regard to 
the limits of this work ; but I suppose I must not 
pass such a sublime curiosity in entire silence. 

The reader has often seen those pageants in which 
mounted officers with bristling spurs and clanging 
sabres make up most of the show. Let him but im- 
agine a large sprinkling of these scattered through a 
plunging mass in which are mingled pedestrians of 
all ages, sizes, sexes, and colors ; mounted caballcros 
from the mountains, with swarthy cheeks, rainbow- 
hued ponchos, sombreros as wide as family umbrellas, 
whole camp-paraphernalia attached to their saddles, 
stirrups approximating Polynesian war-canoes, and 
spurs like the orbit of Neptune ; carriages of all de- 
scriptions, from the open landau of the patrician to 
the lager-beer wagon of commerce ; and mounted 
civilians of every class, from the knowing ones in 
jockey caps and velveteen knee-breeches, through 
the whole list, to the wide eyed, web-footed navigator 
from the Puerto \ all jostling each other and scram- 



236 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

bling for the best position, running, driving, riding, — 
roaring like a cataract in April, — and he can form 
an estimate of the symmetry and elegance of this 



After floating for awhile about the park in this 
curious tide, I struck an eddy and managed to fetch 
a cove in which I could stem it until the comet who 
had caused it had disappeared in the distance, when 
I left him to revel in his perihelion while it lasts, 
and returned to town in the early shades of evening, 
amid a clatter of hoofs and a roar of wheels that 
would have reflected credit on Piccadilly on the 
Derby Day, vaguely wondering where all these people 
had been hidden, that they had but just now come 
to my notice. 

After spending the evening in the company of a 
few families who were in favor of the late Govern- 
ment, and who were gathered together for mutual 
sympathy and what has now changed from patriotism 
to treason, — during which time I revelled in an 
atmosphere of sedition that would have delighted 
the heart of a Russian exile, — I entered my room after 
midnight, threw open my window, and a scene burst 
on me which almost arrested my breath. 

The weather had been fine throughout the day, 
but a vast mass of clouds had clung steadily to the 
arc of the horizon between N. N. E. and S. E., as 
if jealously guarding something from being contami- 
nated by the gaze of the brain-sick, wool-gathering 
multitude who were cheering what they fondly thought 
the beginning of a "millennium " on the plain below. 



THE CORDILLERA. 237 

These clouds had now all vanished, leaving ex-, 
posed to my delighted view — their ravines and spurs 
respectively showing dark lines of shadow and 
gleaming like polished steel in the light of a full 
moon — the eternal snows of the gigantic Cordillera. 

Though the nearest peak was more than twenty 
miles distant, the air was so clear, the scene so calm, 
and the outlines so perfect, they seemed to be almost 
within reach. The city — which a few hours since 
had throbbed with the enhanced life resulting from 
a national holiday celebration, new political and mar- 
tial excitement, and a savage thirst for the blood of 
the unfortunate Balmaceda (who was to send a bullet 
crashing through his own brain before the close of 
another day) and the members of his government 
who were hiding from the brutal mob in the various 
legations about town — appeared suddenly to have 
been hushed into an unnatural and ghoulish sleep ; 
the silence being unbroken save by now and then 
the patter of a pair of feet on the flags or the metal- 
lic click of a horse's shoes on the granite pavement, 
as some belated wolf returned to his den. 

Half afraid that any sudden movement might re- 
awaken the dreadful monster, I silently lighted a 
cigar, cautiously drew an easy-chair in front of the open 
window, and, while nothing moved save an occasional 
wreath of fairy-like smoke as it floated out at the 
window and soared away toward that lofty and im- 
maculate horizon, I sat till far toward morning 
wrapt in such mute admiration that my fancy almost 
endowed each peak with prophetic life, and I partly 



238 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

hoped, partly feared, to hear them answer the dread-. 
ful questions I mentally asked them. 

Never before did I see how unjust I had been in 
regarding Nature as cruel to man because she some- 
times puts him to inconvenience and even to death ; 
how much greater is her clemency to him than he 
deserves — than his to himself; how he outrages 
her by acts of violence and cruelty committed before 
her face — often for centuries at a time receiving 
nothing but smiles in return. When, after fifteen 
hours of alternately witnessing the triumph of the 
victors and the grief of the defeated, I looked on 
those wondrous, glacier-faced peaks, unchanged since 
the day they saw the reeking sword of Pizarro drive 
the last Inca from the throne of his fathers, shining 
down from an elevation of twenty thousand feet, I 
wondered how much longer they would endure the 
savage scenes to which they are compelled to be 
silent witnesses, before summoning to the surface the 
subterranean fires which gave them birth, and sweep- 
ing from existence the wretched, insignificant pyg- 
mies who are yet wrangling for a bloody prize in the 
political lottery at their feet. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

The Last Campaign. — Battle of Concon. — Chilian Soldiers. 
— Battle of Placilla. — Butchery at Valparaiso. — Surrender 
OF Santiago. — Balmaceda's Death. — The United States Min- 
ister. 

Owing to disagreements among the various reports 
of the final campaign, it is difficult to get at the 
exact truth ; more particularly, perhaps, as to the 
number of men engaged in the different battles : but 
having read various accounts cut from American 
newspapers, nearly every one of which was utterly 
wrong, many of them not having told correctly which 
army made the attacks, I will give as nearly the cor- 
rect account as can be gathered from what I have 
read and heard. Even those officers who were en- 
gaged in some of the battles, with whom I have 
talked, do not seem to have had a very good idea of 
the size of the army in which they fought. 

The Opposition war -ships and transports, having 
come from the northern ports, which had long been 
in their possession, anchored in Ouinteros Bay, eigh- 
teen miles north of Valparaiso, on the 20th of August, 
1891, and landed about eleven thousand men of the 
three arms, who immediately commenced their march 

(2391 



240 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

toward Valparaiso. On the 21st, at 11 a. m., hav- 
ing arrived on the heights north of the Aconcagua 
River, about ten thousand of them engaged the Gov- 
ernment Army, said to have numbered fourteen 
thousand of all arms (though other reports put the 
number much smaller), occupying the corresponding 
heights on the south side of that river, near the vil- 
lage of Concon Bajo. 

The battle was opened by the Opposition artillery 
from the heights, their fire being answered by the 
Government artillery opposite ; while the war-ship 
Esmeralda, stationed off the mouth of the Aconcagua, 
kept up a fire of long-range guns on the Government 
forces. This vessel, the paragon of the Chilian navy, 
seems to have found this more to her taste (retalia- 
tion being out of the question) than some of her 
other enterprises, and she is said to have made great 
havoc in the Government ranks. When the battle 
had continued for two hours, kept up chiefly by the 
artillery of botji armies, the Opposition infantry 
moved forward and forded the river, under a so-called 
"scathing fire," which nevertheless caused them the 
loss of but twenty men. If, as reported, they "crossed 
with the water up to their necks, their arms held 
above their heads," it would appear that the fourteen 
thousand men on the heights above must have 
handled them very tenderly to put so few of them 
out of the race. 

Their situation, at the foot of a ridge of hills the 
summit of which was held by a superior force strongly 
intrenched, was now one which might have caused 



THE CHILIAN SOLDIER. 241 

uneasiness even to old Mars himself ; but these 
valiant patriots immediately commenced the ascent 
under a galling infantry-fire only held a little in check 
by the fire of their own artillery yet in position on 
the heights they had left, and (according to the 
account which I studied), " the Mannlicher rifle with 
which six thousand of them were armed, and the cause 
of Liberty for which they were fighting, overcoming all 
obstacles," by 4 p. m. had the field in their possession ; 
the Government troops, — those of them who had 
not changed their minds about which was the 
most popular side on which to fight, — minus eighteen 
guns and a hundred and fifty mule-loads of ammuni- 
tion, leaving a thousand dead and fifteen hundred 
wounded, being in full retreat, or rather rout, for Val- 
paraiso and Santiago. 

The Chilian soldier, though his indifference as to 
whether he lives or dies will often cause him to stand 
on open ground, without the least inclination to take 
advantage of any available cover, and fire till the last 
man falls, appears generally to be ready, on meeting 
with the least reverse or on being captured, to join 
the other army and shoot down his late comrades 
with the same dull, stupid, enjoyment of killing. He 
seems to see no object but indiscriminate slaughter. 
To the instinctive regard for the preservation of his 
life, both for himself and for the benefit of the cause 
for which he fights, which prompts the soldier of 
most other nations to take advantage of anything 
which can contribute to safety, as well as to that 
courage which enables him to face anything rather 



242 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

than yield an inch where it will be to his discredit, 
the Chilian soldier seems to be an entire stranger. 
I never, before studying this war, realized what a 
vast difference there is between true courage, and 
the indifference to death and love of fighting which 
is often mistaken for it. 

The Opposition ranks were swelled by about two 
thousand of these renegades, part of them captives, 
part of them deserters, — all prepared to fight with 
steady valor against their late comrades, — and on 
the following day an attack was made on Vina del 
Mar, on the coast between Concon and Valparaiso, 
the invaders intending to take that line of march on 
the last-named city. Finding this too strongly 
fortified, they left the works on that route to be 
annoyed by the war-ships along the coast, and, as I 
have been told, from a very safe distance ; a few 
heavy guns which were in the forts not being so 
much to their taste as was the field-artillery and 
musketry of Concon, which had other targets 
possible to reach. They then made a detour inland 
via Ouilpue, finally approaching Valparaiso from the 
southward along the cart-road from Santiago, meet- 
ing the reorganized and reinforced Government 
Army strongly situated on the heights known as the 
^^Alto del Puerto,'" a kind of table-land between 
Valparaiso and a low plain on which, close to the 
foot of the declivity between, stands the village of 
Placilla, which village has given the name to the 
battle fought there on the 28th of August, the final 
battle of the Revolution ; the Government Army 



BATTLE OF PLACILLA. 243 

having been in it partially killed and wounded, par- 
tially captured, partially scattered, (probably) partially 
murdered, — totally annihilated. 

This field I have since visited and studied care- 
fully ; and the little that I have learned of strategic 
lore seems to point to the fact that an army has 
rarely enjoyed a better natural position than that 
held by the Government troops. From Valparaiso 
the road winds around ravines and along the faces 
and through the passes of the hills back of the town, 
until it reaches the greatest height attained in its 
course through this vicinity, when for the distance of 
about half a mile it traverses a nearly level plain of 
two or more miles in length, which was occupied by 
the Government forces during the battle. This 
plateau terminates in an abrupt brow, a little in the 
rear of which was stationed the Government 
artillery, commanding a large plain which extends 
from the village of Placilla, at the foot of the descent 
in front, to a distance of many miles, with the Santi- 
ago road in its centre. A ridge of mountains flanks 
this plain on either hand, and along this broad valley 
the Opposition troops moved to the attack. 

In front of the Government artillery-line, between 
it and the brow, are a series of deep gullies or small 
ravines, which — while they could readily be crossed 
or re-crossed by their own infantry when a change 
of line was necessary, or, though most of them were 
too deep for the firing-line, could readily be used to 
cover the support and reserve — effectually pro- 
tected the centre from any movement of artillery or 



244 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

cavalry on the part of an attacking or pursuing 
enemy, excepting along the narrow road. With this 
protection in the centre, the only part of the Govern- 
ment line which appeared at all vulnerable was the 
wings, which extended beyond the ravines ; which 
fact the Opposition commanders seem thoroughly to 
have understood. 

Commencing to move before day-break and then 
taking advantage of the scrub and undulating ground 
at each side of the Placilla plain, — the Government 
cavalry having failed to send out scouts to learn of 
the enemy's movements, — the right and left divi- 
sions (or brigades, which, in these small armies, act 
as divisions) of the Opposition Army succeeded in 
getting a position under the guns of their opponents, 
and remained unobserved till, the brigade which 
formed their centre moving forward on and near the 
Santiago road, the Government artillery, supposing 
it to be the leading column of the enemy, opened 
fire on it at a three-thousand-yard range. The 
advanced divisions of the Oppositionists on the 
right and left then rushed to the attack, thus 
diverting most of the fire from their centre, which 
now advanced at a double-pace and was soon 
pushing up the ascent toward the Government 
centre. While the Opposition centre was yet out of 
action, their right wing pressed so hard that the 
Government guns were turned in that direction, 
leaving the infantry to hold the left in check ; not- 
withstanding which, the Opposition right, being 
supported by two new regiments, made a detour and 



BATTLE OF PLACILLA. 245 

completely turned the Government left, sabering the 
men at their guns. Meantime the infantry on the 
right were becoming disordered, while the Opposi- 
tion centre were pushing steadily up the hill ; and 
soon after they reached the summit, all became con- 
fusion. The Opposition cavalry now charging in the 
rear of both wings, the Government Army — their gen- 
erals, Alcerreca and Barbosa, both dead or cut off — 
broke and fled in complete rout. 

There is no doubt that the Opposition forces were 
well handled, but the only way I can account 
for the utter rout of from eight to ten thousand men 
from this strong position in less than three hours, 
by a force scarcely superior attacking from such a 
disadvantageous position (which seems to have been 
the case, even after the first successful and secret 
movement), is by the supposition that they were 
afflicted with the prevailing disease, disloyalty, or 
doubt of the popularity of the cause ; and again the 
reporter of the battle comes to the front to confirm 
my theory with the words — " Many of them had 
passed over to the ranks of the Congressionalists, 
and many more poor fellows would have been glad to 
have done the same had they been able : " while 
another expresses admiration at their facility in 
" turning their coats wrong-side out, and fighting 
with the Opposition." This desertion from the 
ranks of the unfortunate "Dictator" would proba- 
bly have given me the idea that he as richly de- 
served it as did the Tyrant of Bosworth Field, 
if I had not spent a month in Chili and 



246 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

learned that, however much that is reprehensible 
may qave been in his conduct, most of the attacks 
on his character which I have been able to under- 
stand, have been made on sufficiently bad grounds to 
indicate that actual faults with which to accuse him 
are scarce, or that they were unfortunately chosen 
at random by those who do not discriminate between 
the different degrees of atrocity in acts done for the 
prosecution of war and the salvation of a state in 
great danger, and the same steps when taken at a 
time of peace. 

The fact that the Government Army left a thous- 
and dead on the field would indicate that they made 
a sturdy resistance, but for the existence of a habit 
which I have heard ascribed to these soldiers of put- 
ting the finishing touch of death to all with whom 
they come in contact ; which makes it difficult to 
judge whether they were killed fighting, trying to 
escape, or while begging for mercy. I was told by 
an eye-witness that many of the dead on the field 
were shot in different parts of the body, and also had 
their heads crushed in, as though dispatched with the 
butt of a rifle after having been wounded ; but so 
many things were being said at the time that I did 
not allow myself to take them all in as authentic. 
General Barbosa was reported as having been killed 
while trying to retreat, by Opposition cavalry to 
whom he would not surrender ; but I have got the 
opinion from what I have heard and seen since in 
regard to the treatment of him and other Govern- 
ment generals and leaders, that he was not very 



BUTCHERY AT VALPARAISO. 247 

hard pressed to surrender. Many say that he was 
shot to death by his own men, after the battle had 
turned against him and they had decided to finish 
the fight in behalf of the other side. This custom, 
if it exists, — and I have been told of several cases 
of it, — seems to be purely Chilian ; and is used as a 
kind of flag of truce, to insure "quarter" from the 
enemy. 

Toward noon on the 28th, soon after the Govern- 
ment troops were driven from their position, the 
fugitives, civil and military, began to pour into Val- 
paraiso. From that time till the next morning pan- 
demonium reigned steadily, and all who were in the 
streets, as well as many in the houses, carried their 
lives in their hands, and appeared to have a very 
slippery hold of them at that. The doors being all 
closed and barred, many passed a good part of the 
night in being driven from point to point (of the 
town or of bayonets, which the reader chooses, either 
will be correct), any soldier whom they met, if he did 
not shoot at them, ordering them to turn back ; and 
being able to pursue the new path only till they 
met another, when another tack was enforced in 
the same manner, immediate obedience and hasty 
retreat being the only hope of evading a summary 
bullet. 

Fires broke out all over town ; drunken sol- 
diers and a mad rabble carried on the work of murder, 
pillage, and destruction ; houses were sacked, gutted, 
and destroyed, for plunder, revenge, murder, fun — 
anything; and in the morning the sun rose on a 



248 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

scene of devastation such as has rarely been wit- 
nessed in modern warfare, subsequent to the total 
annihilation of the fighting-power of one side. Three 
hundred corpses were scattered about the streets, 
many of them stripped of their clothing and horribly 
mutilated ; and while smoking ruins and disfigured 
houses were to be seen at every point, men, women, 
and children, who on the day before had had comfort- 
able homes, wandered about the streets not knowing 
which way to turn for shelter or food. 

Balmaceda, on hearing the result of Placilla, handed 
over the city of Santiago to the charge of General 
Baquedano, who had remained neutral throughout 
the struggle, and then disappeared ; nothing being 
again heard of him, save by idle rumor, until, on the 
morning following the i8th of September, — the anni- 
versary of Chilian independence, — he shot himself 
through the head in a bed-room in the Argentine 
legation. This act is regarded by many as proof of 
execrable conduct^ during life and fear of its being 
brought to light ; but I think that in case of one 
having hidden dark deeds, the safest way of keeping 
them covered is to live. I do not believe that any 
commit suicide when in their right minds ; and if we 
add to this man's misfortunes the fact that he knew 
his people well enough to be aware that if he fell into 
the hands of the populace (and the condition of law 
did not promise protection from it) he would imme- 
diately meet the most horrible torture, and death in 
its most ghastly form, I think it most likely that his 
reason gave way under the strain. 



THE UNITED STATES MINISTER. 249 

The United States minister is in some disrepute 
for his conduct at the denouement, and appears to 
richly deserve it. If a man wishes to be popular, he 
should conform to the usages of those by whom he is 
surrounded ; and one who attempts to practice human- 
ity when it is out of fashion, must look for the same 
treatment that has been given to those who have 
attempted to start the theory that the world is round, 
when it had been established for centuries that it is 
flat. Though he did not tell me so, I had good rea- 
son to believe that his legation was pretty well full 
of people who were needed by the populace, that 
they might more fully establish their patriotism by 
tearing them limb from limb ; and as he did not need 
them for the same purpose, they did not see why he 
should deprive them of that pleasure by playing the 
dog in the manger. 

Many hold that he is a thrifty host, and looks out 
to get well paid for his hospitality ; but as I have not 
heard of his having advertised for boarders and named 
the terms, I cannot see where they got their informa- 
tion. One who, in a private conversation, witholds 
the fact that he takes lodgers, would hardly proclaim 
in public what he makes by it ; and I am positive 
that his guests have not been gossiping to the cham- 
pions of the new Government, because these rarely 
make calls at this season, and would probably be 
"not at home" if called on by the same people. If 
he gets a good round sum by way of pecuniary reward, 
all obligations to him on the part of those who ad- 
mire pluck are probably cancelled ; but until it 



250 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

transpires a little more clearly that he does, this kind 
of unpopular inn-keeping, which does not appear to 
be as safe as some other amateur occupations, cer- 
tainly deserves approbation from that class. 

His primary offense is evidently that of being a 
"North American;" and — as our representa- 
tive — tJic North American. Some Chilian " for- 
eigners " say it is his personal character and alien 
birth ; but the same could not have caused that dis- 
courtesy shown — directly or indirectly — to our 
" Hoosier " admiral, to our gallant young naval 
officers, to our sailors, and to the name of our 
great republic. The same spirit which made our 
minister unpopular at Santiago, caused invitations 
to our officers to attend government receptions to 
come too late or too negligently to admit of their 
acceptance ; made it necessary for our chief naval 
officers to demand a sJioiv of that courtesy the sub- 
stance of which is as familiar to the educated Chilian 
as it was to his niost punctilious Castilian ancestor ; 
made Chilian steam-launches run across the bows of 
our naval boats in a manner easily understood by 
any ordinary-seaman ; caused the United States to 
be reviled and our admiral to be slandered by fawn- 
ing editors and cringing street-corner politicians ; 
and finally culminated in a savage attack on our 
sailors by a mob too rude to value the discourtesy 
referred to, but wise enough to take the cue, and to 
mutilate and murder men whose only offense was 
that of wearing the livery of the hated government. 



CHAPTER XXVIIl. 

The Chilian Waterloo. — Cremation, — The Trophy. — Chilian 
Types. — A Domestic "Idyl." — The Devil's Due. 

Having at first taken the word of one who wished 
to accompany me, but whose business did not give 
opportunities which coincided with mine, that it 
would be difficult for me to find the battle-field alone, 
before I got to it, — going alone at last, of course, — 
it had been mostly cleared of horrors, and I did not 
succeed in finding any dead men to frighten me. 
Even in Chili, they do not always allow them to lie 
on the field more than a week or two, before either 
burying or burning them. In this case, after the 
fun in town was mostly over, they stacked them up, 
saturated them with kerosene oil, and burned what 
they could of them ; afterwards burying the rest with 
less expense and work. 

The dead horses were not accorded burial, neither 
did the supply of illuminating oil admit of their cre- 
mation : they still lie where they fell, some shot to 
death on the open plain, and others lying in distorted 
heaps in the gullies, where they were probably ridden 
to a horrible death by either those trying to escape 
from the field, or others striving to secure additional 

(251) 



252 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

victims after the day was won. The memory of 
those poor brutes lying there will probably not 
haunt me so long as that of their riders would have 
done, if I had arrived in season to see them ; but in 
the same ratio that they were less deserving of such 
a fate, they seemed to me a greater proof of the 
cruelty and barbarism of man. 

The best horror that I found — and, strange to 
say, I have usually been able to sleep in the same 
ship with it since — was a cap with a bullet-hole 
through each side of it, and complete evidence inside 
of its having been the last one worn by its owner. 
Perhaps nothing short of a dead man himself (which 
would be an awkward souvenir to keep) would be so 
suggestive a memorial of the horror of war. In case 
of any other garment, there might be some doubt ; 
in this, there is none. I kicked it into a stray haver- 
sack which I found, and have since only once ven- 
tured to exhibit it. I fear it is going to prove a 
white elephant to me, as it is still in the haversack, 
wrapped in a half-dozen newspapers and stowed in 
a spare state-room, where it has remained since I 
brought it on board ; but having circumnavigated 
the globe to get it, I cannot make up my mind to 
sacrifice it. 

The people who live near do not appear to be easy 
victims of nightmare, as their houses are surrounded 
by the most ghastly spoils from the field ; conspicu- 
ous among them being stretchers of canvas, deeply 
dyed with the carnage of the battle. At the risk of 
horrifying the reader, I must tell of an interview 



CHILIAN TYPES.— A DOMESTIC "IDYL:' 253 

which I had with some of these people, and which 
grated harshly on one who used, when he saw that 
the " cross-roads " butcher had his eye on the planta- 
tion pig-pen, to retire to an inner room and insert his 
fingers in his ears ; and which also reminded me that 
my martial studies did not demand as a culmination 
my taking any chances of invading, in the character 
of corpus delicti, any lonely gully in the hills between 
this eventful spot and town. 

Having descended from the Alto del Puerto to the 
plain over which the Opposition forces moved to the 
attack, with a view to visiting their camping-ground 
of the night before the battle, I saw, in front of a 
house, a specimen of the mountain caballcro men- 
tioned in a former chapter, and rode up to ask him 
a few questions as a guide to finding it. The family 
who lived in the house had just killed a sheep or a 
lamb in front of the door, and while the father and 
mother were removing the hide, the children, ranging 
in age from about two to seven years, were gathered 
around the life -stream of the unfortunate animal 
(which had flowed across the verandah and trickled 
down to the earth in front), amusing themselves by 
making a kind of sanguijiary mud pies. 

Notwithstanding my limited knowledge of the 
Spanish language, the old fellow soon learned that I 
was asking questions about the late battle, and be- 
coming inspired with the spirit of " Pozo Almonte, 
Concon and Placilla," produced from beneath his 
ample poncJw a murderous looking weapon of the 
cow-boy brand, and, while getting successive "drops " 



254 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

on the butcher, who retaliated by making imaginary 
passes at him with the gory blade with which he had 
provided his family with mutton, gave me a most en- 
gaging pantomime to illustrate the splendid achieve- 
ments of the Dread Phantom on that glorious field. 

Becoming easily satisfied with these histrionic 
efforts, I gave him some change as a safeguard 
against thirst, and prepared to ride on ; but he had 
become deeply interested in me, and seemed inclined 
to prolong the interview. Looking affectionately at 
the money and admiringly at me, as though he par- 
tially suspected me of being a millionaire, he pro- 
duced some cigarettes made of tobacco wrapped in 
corn-husk, and urged me to have a smoke. Having 
lighted one, I consigned him to the care of the Deity 
in the usual Spanish fashion, and again essayed to 
ride on. He next asked me the time (seeming struck 
with the color or pattern of my watch-case), and then 
exhibited his pistol for my inspection and asked to 
see mine. The difficulty of our exchanging com- 
munications made it unnecessary for me to compre- 
hend this last, and I failed to do so, getting away 
after answering in the affirmative his next question 
as to whether or not I intended to return that day. 

I started with the full intention of seeing the 
Opposition camping-ground ; but now having time 
to put all the above items together, and not liking 
the part where I failed to produce a weapon of equal 
dimensions with his (the absence of ?i poncho making 
it apparent that if I had one at all it must be a very 
small one), I decided I would have a look at the 



CHILIAN TYPES.— THE DEVIHS DUE. 255 

coveted spot at an earlier hour of the clay, when 
there would not be so much danger of the hills 
being dark on my return toward town, and I imme- 
diately tacked back. 

I finished the day in trying to locate the spot on 
which fell the Ney of the late Waterloo (the unfor- 
tunate Barbosa, who, if I guess aright, had better 
success than the original in " dying like a Marshal 
of" — Chili), and looked out to return to town ere 
dusk prevented me from keeping a good safe look- 
out for my loquacious friend of the gigantic spurs. 
I did not believe the old fellow meant me any harm, 
but one who had studied these people less than I 
have perhaps would have thought he did ; and 
in case of my being mistaken, there seemed to be so 
little glory in being thrown into a mountain-gorge 
"unwept, unhonored, and unsung," with no one to 
witness any heroic attempt I might make to die hard, 
that I did not like to back my opinion with such 
serious stakes. I dubiously confessed this timidity 
to a naval officer whom I met in the evening, and he 
complimented me on having shown what he quaintly 
termed "good horse-sense." 

To show why I do not. think I was in any real 
danger, I must explain that the position I profess to 
take in my " obserwations " makes it imperative that 
I keep ever on the alert for a chance to credit 
H. S. H. Prince Lucifer with all the good that rightly 
belongs to him ; and I have to say that notwithstand- 
ing a love of carnage which seems to prevail with 
these people when they are mixed up with it, they 



256 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

appear to be social and even affectionate when not 
excited ; and one sees in them a respect for property- 
rights, though not a fear of law, which he fails to 
find in many more civilized parts of the world. 
Only for this, with their indifference to blood-shed, 
at such a period as that immediately following this 
revolution, a stranger would not be safe for a moment 
when out of sight of the town. 

When I was in the train at a station between San- 
tiago and Valparaiso, a boy of about ten years came 
into the car to sell glasses of snow from the cor- 
dillcra, sweetened and flavored to do duty as ice- 
cream. More from curiosity than from a desire to 
eat much of this strange compound, so strangely 
served, I took a glass from him, giving him a twenty- 
cent piece. He searched his pocket for a dime, 
which, with a good fortune seldom known to his 
class, he found. On his offering it to me, which he 
did without hesitation, I motioned him to keep it. 
He looked surprised and rather doubtful, and after 
spending a few minutes in what appeared to be an 
uneasy reverie, timidly approached and tendered it 
again. I repeated the motion, and this time he 
appeared to be sure of my intentions and put it into 
his pocket. Before long, however, doubt again arose 
in his mind, and he again brought it forth. Taking 
advantage of the necessity of approaching to take 
the glass from me, he offered it the third time, show- 
ing a most beautiful embarrassment, evidently caused 
by a mixture of fear of intrusion and anxiety to 
evade any suspicion of being dishonest. I took it, 



CHILIAN TYPES.— THE DEVIUS DUE. 257 

and immediately put it back into his liand and 
pointed to the door. This time all doubt was 
banished, and with an expression of great relief and 
satisfaction on his face he made for the door, and 
when the train started I saw him eagerly talking to 
an associate, probably telling of his good luck. 

I ask you who have studied the peanut-venders 
and periwinkle-dealers of civilization, if ye have ever 
seen anything like this } The reader must not sup- 
pose that this was a brightly-dressed, uniformed 
"news agent" of the train. No, he was a veritable 
ragamuffin, who boarded the train at one of the most 
squalid stations on the route. Who can fail to see 
in this a most delightful trait of character, and a 
prospect of these people being the most amiable in 
the world, if they could only be taught to appreciate 
soap and water, and to renounce the savagery which 
makes them regard any scene of blood and horror, 
either with indifference, or with a dangerous 
fascination } 

It exactly agrees with what I have often seen in 
these people, even in the class to which he belonged, 
for the old man mentioned above to be delighted to 
have a chance to talk with and entertain a stranger ; 
to admire me as one whose situation in life allowed 
me to give what to him seemed, perhaps, a munifi- 
cent "tip ;" to honestly revel in the view of what to 
him appeared to be a magnificent watch ; to show 
me that though he did not have one also, he was 
more fortunate in the matter of weapons, and owned 
a good revolver; to be generously anxious to learn 



258 UNDER COTTON CANVAS, 

whether or not I was equally lucky ; and to 
take, even in the short time we talked together, a 
liking to me which would make him wish to know if 
I were coming back that day, in order to be able to 
judge of his chances of seeing me again. 

To tell the truth, it had been a long time since I 
felt so "small" as I did when I was returning past 
the place where I had left him, and, though he was 
nowhere in sight, was afraid he might be looking 
at me from some place where I could not see him, 
and attributing my neglect to look for him to a fail- 
ure on my part to appreciate his rude courtesy. 
Yet, knowing the fallibility of all human hypotheses, 
and not having as much as a pea-shooter in the way 
of a weapon, I sacrificed courtesy to good judgment, 
and lost no time in getting back to the heights from 
which I had descended, and where I could form a 
better estimate of the time it would take for me to 
get back to town. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



PisAGUA. — Synopsis of Northern Campaign. — Dangerous Cele- 
brations. — The Town. — The Harbor. — The Pampas. — Explora- 
tions. — The Mines, Miners and Nitrate Works. — British Hos- 
pitality. — BALiMACEDA's LOYAL ENEMIES. 

Having spent between three and four weeks in 
contemplation of the most dreary landscape she ever 
succeeded in finding, the Omvard is again on the high 
seas ; but with so mild winds that she has barely left 
beyond the line of vision those monstrous ash-heaps 
known in Tarapaca as mountains and pampas, after 
two days of diligent sailing. 

When six days out from Valparaiso, we steered in 
for this Stygian coast at a point about thirty-five miles 
north of Iquique, which we passed the day before, 
and rounded a ragged point extending out from a 
vast mass of dross-colored sand, so steep as to appear 
almost like a perpendicular bluff. Under the bight 
and highest part of this, about two miles east of the 
point and an equal distance south from a vast gully 
known as the Pisagua River, — but whose scanty 
stream of water has long since been absorbed by the 
nitrate works of the interior, — appeared what one 
would suppose might be the resort of some race be- 

(259) 



260 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

tween the beaver and the rudest fishermen of history 
or fiction. A facetious pilot, who evidently holds the 
rank of " phunny phellow " of this region, after board- 
ing us and repeatedly declaring that our "devoted 
bark " was hopelessly doomed to collision with ships 
at anchor under our lee, succeeded — not till I had sev- 
eral times mentally chosen the steam -route to employ 
for a passage home after she should have found a 
watery grave — in anchoring her unharmed between 
the fleet and a rocky beach, on which the surf was 
dashing with uninterrupted vigor. 

This was Pisagua, the historical town which has, 
probably, in proportion to its size, furnished more of 
their national pastime — fighting — to the Chilians, 
than any other of this republic. I mean, of course, 
since it has been on their list. Here, during the 
Peruvian war, they landed and drove the Peruvian 
inhabitants, at the point of the bayonet, up the steep 
ascent, out into the pampas ; and, if I have been told 
aright, out of existence : a prodigious feat, — the first 
item of it requiring, if one were to judge from the 
offing, balloons of the latest build and highest power. 

Here occurred about the first fighting of the late 
revolution ; the revolted fleet having forraa,lly thrown 
a few shells into the sand and then landed troops, 
v/ho marched inland to meet the Government forces 
marching overland from Iquique to dispute their 
landing. The meeting took place near by, and sev- 
eral small battles occurred, which resulted in the 
town being taken and re-taken several times, many 
houses and offices being perforated with shot-holes 



DANGEROUS CELEBRATIONS. 261 

in a manner suggestive of warm times for the inhabi- 
tants. The final and greatest battle of this part of 
the country was that of Pozo Almonte, on the Nitrate 
Railway between Pisagua and Iquique, resulting in 
the defeat of the Government Army, the down-fall 
of Balmaceda's power in the North, and the perma- 
nent occupation of these parts by the Congression- 
alists or Oppositionists, who established a Junta-like 
government at Iquique. 

P'rom this to the close of the war the people here 
were unmolested, save by a little diversion on the 
part of a couple of Balmaceda's ships — about the 
only ones which stuck to him, I think. They shelled 
the town a little, apparently by way of target-prac- 
tice or of proclaiming the fact that they still had 
powder in their lockers. The greatest danger the 
inhabitants were exposed to during this time was the 
failure of the patriots to procure blank cartridges 
when they fired salutes in honor of victories or 
national holidays. The people here seem to be well 
inured to this sort of thing. Even an American 
lady who had lived for some time in the country 
seemed to regard a flying bullet with nothing but 
pure curiosity. On the Day of All Saints, she and 
a party of her friends were returning in my boat from 
the cemetery (where we had been to do a little deco- 
ration, but did not feel in the humor to remain and 
join the high revel which was to occur later), when a 
shot from a party who were celebrating the holy 
anniversary on a little island close to the beach, 
struck within a few feet of the stern of the boat, close 



262 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

to which we were sitting. She looked a little sur- 
prised, and asked me if I saw it, but betrayed no 
more uneasiness than though it had been a snow- 
flake. 

As one gets nearer, the town begins to assume the 
semblance of a resort for human beings, and when 
he gets ashore the likeness is more perfect ; but he 
is yet lost in vague conjectures as to what class of luna- 
tic first invented the idea of living there, and has a 
maddening desire for a pair of wings with which to 
soar high enough to get a breath of air clear of this 
horrible bandage of sand, which seems to be bound 
tightly around his neck and to rise, at an angle of 
eighty degrees (like the collar of an amateur darkie 
in a Jubilee Troupe), to an elevation a hopeless dis- 
tance above his head. He gradually gets used to 
this, however, and by constant practice learns to 
breathe without leaving the town. When he learns 
that railroad-trains, by a series of " tacks " resem- 
bling those of a ship with a head wind, actually scale 
this dismal barrier, he begins to have a hope of get- 
ting away, even if his ship should get burned or 
sunk. But I must not attempt an exhaustive descrip- 
tion of this place, lest I make my pen a medium for 
the transmission of a current of desolate terms 
which will result in the asphyxiation of the sensitive 
reader. 

The harbor is safe enough in the absence of earth- 
quakes and the sometimes consequent tidal waves ; 
and to one who is used to lying idle (as we did) for 
five days at a time, in a calm or in a light breeze 



THE PAMPAS. 263 

straight from the shore, rolling in a heavy swell 
which comes from Heaven knows where or from 
what cause, and breaks on the beach with a fury which 
admits of not one ounce of cargo being shipped while 
it lasts, — the chief amusement during the time being 
the feat of landing at the jetty without staving one's 
boat into matchwood, — it is perhaps good enough : 
but we have not been on this coast long enough to 
like it, and were glad to man the topsail sheets 
and bid it (we hope) a long farewell. 

The great event was my invasion of the pampas, 
as it resulted in my finding a pool of water, and also 
in my eyes feasting on a few straggling green shrubs 
which grew in the river-bed below, nurtured by the 
few drops of water that escape through a dam 
which arrests a thread-like stream issuing from be- 
tween two towering, rocky-faced cliffs, and stores it 
for dissolving caliche, a kind of soft rock from the 
mines, the greater part of which consists of nitrate 
of soda. 

By the courtesy of the British consul I escaped 
from the vulgar necessity of buying a railway ticket, 
and, starting on a train at 8 a. m., arrived before 
noon at the nitrate plant, or officma (as they are 
called here), known as "Jaz Pampa ; " and, although 
the chief manager, whom I had met in town and from 
whom I had received an invitation, was in Iquique, I 
was received and entertained by his lieutenants in a 
manner which gave a fresh impetus to my already ex- 
alted opinion of British hospitality, and made me feel 
doubly guilty for the vague conjectures I had written 



264 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

about the probable effect of these sterile landscapes 
on those who are forced to live on them. This plant 
is situated, according to the information given me by 
one of my hosts, nearly four thousand feet above the 
level of the sea, and commands a view of the most 
picturesque desolation ; the only relief from the same 
rusty, mildewed, scoria-colored mantle, spread alike 
over hill, mountain, plain, ravine, valley, and basin, 
being, far away to the north, several snow-covered 
peaks of the Andes, one of which he declared to be 
at the startling distance of a hundred and sixty-five 
miles. 

Having lunched, and moistened our throats after 
the manner which that thirsty and hospitable soul, 
John Bull, deems necessary before allowing himself 
to pilot a guest up barren mountains, over grassy 
plains, into fertile valleys, out on the water, down 
into the water, under tropical suns, or through arctic 
snows, a party of us mounted horses and mules and 
commenced to explore this strange country, — I to 
learn the process 6y which the ingenuity of man has 
forced it to yield untold wealth, and they, though 
ostensibly to help me in this research, really, I think, 
to show me the above-mentioned pool of water and 
green shrubs, of which they appear to be justly 
proud. 

Never having made a voyage on a mule, I chose 
one of those patient-looking animals, first explaining 
to my host that I drew my (riding) line at mules, 
having always understood that that melancholy 
brute first threw his rider off, and then kicked him 



MINES, MINERS AND NITRATE WORKS. 265 

into a shadow ; and asked him not to lay it to my 
web-feet, if a like calamity befel me. He was not a 
symmetrical animal, and if deprived of his ears (his 
only ornament) would have closely resembled an old 
trunk in the attic at home, which belonged to my 
great-grandfather ; but before I had ridden him two 
miles, I had become infused with a confidence in his 
feet and legs which allowed me to breathe freely 
while he was making his way along the sides of steep 
mountains, by paths the narrowness of which might 
well cause a cat to pause and try the condition of his 
claws. 

Having visited the Pride of the Desert, — during 
which visit I secured a branch of one of the shrubs 
with an instinct worthy of Noah's dove, — -we next 
sought the miners in their haunts. The caliche 
being at the most not more than fifteen feet below 
the surface, they do not work under-ground, except 
to plant their mines of dynamite. With this they 
blast the surface all off ; afterward separating the 
caliche from the loose earth and the other rock in 
which it is imbedded. If one did not allow himself 
to feel so much sympathy for the poor fellows at 
work that he cannot wonder at their welcoming a 
revolution which will give them a change from dust 
to smoke, — even at the risk of leaving a world which 
can have but few charms for them, — it would be a 
pictu;esque view to look across a plain where this 
work is going on. With the dust raised by the mule 
and bullock teams coming after and hauling off the 
calic/ie, together with that rising from every spot 



26Q UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

where a man is at work, and the columns mounting 
like water-spouts or the breath of sperm-whales at 
the explosions of the mines, one can almost imagine 
it a battle-scene in which the stakes are conquest 
and martial glory, instead of one which is but one 
long, dull fight for bread — and rum. 

The coal miner may be supposed to have a hard 
life, but I regard it as far better than that of these 
men His work, though certainly not clean, is far 
below the surface, where he can be cool and comfort- 
able ; while these men not only have to burrow into 
the earth, in holes scarcely large enough to admit of 
their turning around, but are also exposed to the 
heat of a tropical sun and to clouds of dust : while 
the work of removing the earth and worthless rock — 
by far the greater part of the exploded mass — seems 
to me the most dismal I have seen. 

The caliche is crushed by machinery ; after which 
it is boiled in large boilers, by means of steam-pipes 
passing through them, the nitrate becoming dissolved 
in the water while the foreign parts settle to the 
bottom. The solution is then run into large iron 
tanks or vats, and allowed to stand till the sides and 
bottoms become covered with a thick coating of crys- 
tals ; after which the liquid is drawn off and submitted 
to a further process to extract from it the iodine, 
which is found in it in very remunerative quantities 
in this mine (though I think they told me that it 
does not exist, or not to any extent, in many others). 
The crystals are then shovelled out of the vats into 
vast heaps, allowed to drain, and are finally bagged. 



BRITISH HOSFITAIITY. 267 

sent to the port by rail, and shipped to Europe and 
the United States as the nitrate of soda of commerce. 

I dined at a sumptuous table, at which I got deli- 
cacies in the way of vegetables for which, in my 
hotel at Valparaiso, I had asked in vain ; spent the 
evening in a nicely carpeted parlor, — one of the 
largest single rooms I have seen in private life, — in 
most delightful company ; passed a comfortable night 
without either nearly breaking my neck in a horrible 
yawning chasm between mattress and pillow, or fling- 
ing the latter across the room, — an experience un- 
known to me in South American hotels ; took another 
ride in the morning, during which I visited the cem- 
etery, — a most ghastly place, roughly walled with dis- 
carded rock from the mines and thickly strewn with 
empty bottles from the late revel on the Dia de 
Todos Santos, but in which most pathetic attempts 
at rude decoration have been made ; and after lunch 
took leave of my generous entertainers and returned 
to the port more than ever astonished at the sturdy 
perseverance of our charming British cousins, which 
not only prompts them to look for wealth (and find it, 
too) in the most unpromising deserts on which the 
sun ever shone, but to plan their campaigns and 
maintain their bases of supplies in such a masterly 
manner that they can entertain their guests nearly 
as comfortably in the most remote corners to which 
they ever penetrate, as on the banks of the Tweed, 
the Boyne, the Dee, or the Thames. 

When in town, I usually slept on board my ship ; 
but one notable exception was when I enjoyed the 



268 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

hospitality of the chief of a nitrate-shipping firm, 
and was amused and delighted at the ingenuity dis- 
played in making a luxurious villa at the foot of this 
rude sand-bank. The offices being on the ground 
floor, the dwelling-rooms were on the upper, and 
bordered by a broad veranda. 

When I rose in the morning, a walk in the garden 
was about the last idea likely to enter my head ; but 
on opening the door I was surprised to see that a 
railed walk — in fact, two of them — connected the ve- 
randa with a wide, railed platform overlapping the 
beach, on which were rustic benches and other gar- 
den furniture. One could saunter out there in dress- 
ing-gown and slippers, and choose between a walk 
up and down, a stretch on a garden seat, or a dreamy 
smoke, while leaning over the rail watching the seals 
sporting in the water, and following the course of the 
foaming breakers as they chased each other out of 
sight beneath him and dashed against the rocks far 
in the rear. Shades of Robinson Crusoe and Mas- 
terman Ready! Must you, then, after all these 
years, yield the palm to these new rivals in the work 
of establishing friendly relations with difficulties .'' 

This experience led me to the conclusion that it 
may not be impossible that Pisagua may yet become 
a resort of the world of fashion. A Mount Washing- 
ton Summit House at the apex of the sand-bluff may 
not be an impossibility ; and by moving the shipping 
a little out to sea, why could not a CJiamps Elysees 
and Garden of the Tuilleries be projected out over 
the Bay .'' And who knows but that, with an artesian 



BALMACEDA'S LOYAL EN EM LBS. ■ 269 

boring-apparatus four thousand miles long, driven at 
an angle with the horizon of about twenty-five de- 
grees (instead of ninety, as usual ), a Saratoga spring 
might be struck ? 

My host was an amiable specimen of the British 
antiquary, and treated me to a view of some rare 
Peruvian relics ; conspicuous among them being 
specimens of pottery moulded by an ancient race of 
people who held Peru before the Incas. He was an 
anti-Balmaceda man, of course ; as all are here. I 
have talked with many of them, and find that they 
substantiate Lord Macaulay's theory, by not being 
nearly so rancorous against him, here in the place 
legitimate for his enemies, as are the people which 
held out for him till his fall, and had to make up for 
lost time by fawning on the new Government to the 
extent of hiding or crushing their respect for mercy 
and humanity. 

Here, they dare condemn a cruel and barbarous act, 
even though committed by an Opposition soldier, or 
by a rabble whose senseless " Vivas " are in praise of 
that party. South, many would hold this to be rank 
treason. H^ere, instead of irritating one's sensibili- 
ties by trying to figure as disinterested patriots whose 
sole anxiety is for Chili and the Chilians, they make 
no secret of the fact that Balmaceda's disfavor to 
foreigners was the chief cause of their dislike of his 
policy. This is refreshing, and causes a stranger to 
feel a certain degree of sympathy with them, instead 
of being confident that they are time-serving or 
pusillanimous humbugs. 



270 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

Though some doubt the truth of the report I read 
of Col. Robies' death, and think he was shot to death 
by his own men at Pozo Almonte, most others say 
::iy version is right ; and all agree that whichever 
way it happened, — though they appear to have had no 
affection for him, — it was a vile murder. "Just retri- 
bution " was the verdict I heard down South. South, 
if one wishes to know what was the chief incentive 
which fdled the Opposition ranks, he is made weary 
by declarations of Spartan patriotism. Here, the 
answer was "pure love of a fight." This exactly 
tallies with what I saw and heard of them, and gives 
me confidence that at last I am getting the "straight 
tip." The English gentleman who gave me the ac- 
count of the war here, told in straight narrative and 
without a blush, that after the recapture of the town 
by the Government forces the streets were much 
more orderly than at the corresponding period after 
its capture by the Oppositionists. For this, many 
down South would say he deserved banishment. 



Chapter XXX. 

The " Send-off." — The " Kennebecker." — Theft. — Parables. 
— The Possible Invasion of Washington. — The Too-hot Out- 
post. 

Though something of a curiosity on shore, among 
the gigantic, iron-sicled European fleet in the bay, 
the Omvard was a mere zero. The two elements 
seem to disagree in this respect, and while popularity 
and rarity go arm in arm on shore, popularity and 
multiplicity fraternize on the seas. 

There is an old-time custom on this coast, of rally- 
ing around a fellow-countryman when he sails, seeing 
him safely out of the fleet, helping him put a final 
" splice in the main brace," and giving him what is 
often termed "a send-off." This occurred to nearly 
every vessel that sailed while we were there, even to an 
American bark which started an hour or two in 
advance of us ; leaving to us the delicate task of 
bearing away the last rose-hued shimmer of the mar- 
itime flag of the two Joneses (proudly hoisted at the 
peak by the gallant Paul, and since snugly stowed 
in his '* locker" by the antiquary, Davy), to be seen 
here no more till the heaving bosom of the Pacific 
shall have thrown up another waif. The captain of 

(271) 



272 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

the other being one of our newly acquired fellow- 
citizens from over the water, those who hail from be- 
yond the North Sea rallied around him, unmindful of 
his self-expatriation. 

When the Omvard' s topsails began to creep toward 
the mast-head, not a speck of a boat dotted the 
waters. Our stern hawser being fast to the stern 
mooring of a hulk (we having unmoored before and 
let her swing round) and the bight of it foul of some 
obstruction on the bottom in the most wretched man- 
ner, while my two bow-lines were made fast to vessels 
the people on board which made no pretence of un- 
derstanding English, I had begun to fear difficulty in 
getting them let go at the right moment to allow us 
to clear the ships thickly strewn to le'ward, when a 
boat hove in sight past the stern of a neighboring 
ship, and steered straight for us. 

Who was this foreigner who was going to escort 
the sad remnant of departed maritime greatness 
through the iron walls which threatened her with 
disastrous collision? "Steward! my glass." As I 
thought ! Who sJionld it be but our one gallant 
specimen of the genus " Kennebecker .^ " One who 
remembers when scores of his countrymen gathered 
under the beautiful old banner whenever its brilliant 
constellation radiated from the peak of a homeward- 
bounder from the guano deposits of this same coast, 
at a period when no other nation on the face of the 
globe could compete with us in mustering for one of 
these simple but time-honored courtesies. One who 
stuck to that flag as long as it held out a hope of a 



THE KENNEBECKER.— THEFT. 273 

livelihood for himself and his family; but who, since 
I last met him two years ago, still in command of one 
of the Kennebec fleet in which he had passed his 
whole life, has taken refuge from our maritime ruin 
in the more promising shelter of the flag of the 
Kamehamehas ! How fortunate for Uncle Sam is 
the fact that he has, in the North Pacific, ono, protege 
who can give an asylum to his weary navigators ! 

Thus reinforced, with the assistance of the captain 
of the hulk, whose memory of bright days passed 
under the starry flag caused him to take to his boat 
to be ready to help us, we cast adrift, and I was 
aghast to see that she refused to go out where I had 
intended, but went straight ahead toward another 
vessel, instead of paying off as I had anticipated. 
Having, when she had no rudder, formed the habit 
of allowing her to have her own way, I acquiesced and 
shifted the helm, crossing the bow of the vessel 
under our lee, and then, by using every artifice with 
sails and helm, managed to get her off enough to 
clear the next one. I was surprised, as well as dis- 
gusted ; but when we got outside and fished the 
anchor, we learned the cause of this strange conduct. 

I knew before that she had human traits, but had 
to learn, after an acquaintance of eleven years, that one 
of them was dishonesty. Probably mistrusting that we 
had not got very rich by our voyage to this grotesque 
coast, she had literally "hooked" an anchor and 
chain cable, and it was a miracle that she succeeded 
in dragging them through the fleet without fouling 
other vessels' moorings, and swinging into a collision 



274 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

the result of which would at least have been her stay- 
ing a few more months on it, if not her leaving her 
bones here. It was no longer a wonder that she 
hesitated about paying off, with all that " swag " 
dragging at her bov/. 

My courteous escort, having piloted us clear of all 
danger, took leave of me outside of the fleet, and, as 
our numbers did not admit of loud cheers, we did 
not attempt it .; but the warm grasp of his hand and 
the deep-toned, earnest "good-by, old man," that I 
received instead, made a very respectable substitute. 
His solitary, generous, and (in this case) highly nec- 
essary and efficient assistance will long be remem- 
bered with gratitude ; and if our Houses of Congress 
never tempt such as he to return to the shade of the 
Star-Spangled Banner, I am sure the greater loss 
will be on their side. 

Being aware that it is fashionable to neglect to 
"take the bull by the horns," — which neglect too often 
results in the delinquent being gored or tossed help- 
lessly into a hedge of thorns, — I am afraid many of my 
countrymen may think it would be better for our dignity 
if I kept these things secret. But I can only repeat 
the perhaps dangerous question which I invite the 
reader to regard as always inscribed as a motto on 
the banner beneath which I sail before the public — 
"Am I not right.''" I admit that if I were presi- 
dent of a railroad in Illinois, I should not have ever 
before my eyes, our humiliation abroad. But would 
it not exist just the same .^ And would not one who 
played the part of watch-dog, who barked whenever 



PARABLES. 275 

my fancied security exposed me to ridicule, be enti- 
tled to my gratitude for warning me that I was being 
laughed at, and with good reason of which I might 
not have thought ? Is our country so large that we 
need not (or cannot) regard it as a unit, consider its 
relation to other countries, and look out that it gets 
the respect its size and importance merit ? 

There is a habit ascribed to the ostrich, of hiding 
his head in the sand to escape observation ; a pro- 
ceeding which, though it appears to the silly bird to 
answer the purpose of making him invisible to his 
enemy, is known to be a fallacy, and is almost sure 
to lead to ignominious capture. This course certainly 
has the advantage of keeping him in blissful ignorance 
of his fate until it is full upon him, and many might 
think it better than to have added to it the horror of 
anticipation ; but if a stray ostrich chances not to be 
able to get to a sand-bank for the purpose, and thereby 
has a chance to see how his fellows are being duped 
by their false sense of security, is he to be blamed 
if he reminds them that their refuge is delusive, and 
urges them to abandon it and join him in trying to 
find a place of real safety ? 

When a shark appears alongside a ship, he is often 
accompanied by the vigilant, sprightly little pilot- 
fish. Apparently full of anxiety, the latter darts here 
and there as if fully aware that if anything serious 
happens to his chief, he himself will be thenceforth 
but a mere cipher. He even often appears to scent the 
snare in the baited hook, and to urge his huge com- 
panion not to yield to its tempting beauty. When 



276 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

the catastrophe comes he darts away, probably full 
of consternation, perhaps never again to be anything 
but a vagabond devoid of interest in life ; but what- 
ever becomes of him, it appears to me he should be 
exempt from the blame of his associates (whom I 
will next introduce), even if his pertinacious precau- 
tions have sometimes disturbed them. 

The monster is landed on deck, and we see that he is 
partly coated with small fish — some of them nearly as 
large as the pilot-fish — closely adhering to his skin. 
After a while these learn they are out of their element, 
relax their hold, fall off, and die an ignoble, well- 
deserved death. They have enjo3^ed happy ignorance 
of — or sluggish insensibility to — the fate in store for 
them ; but whose position is the less deserving of 
blame, even if equally disastrous, — theirs, or that of 
the wily little watch-dog who tried to avert this gen- 
eral calamity, and if he had tried with their assistance 
would perhaps have been successful .'' I see the 
chance to quarrel with these similes ; but except with 
the reader to whom ridicule (as well as death or cap- 
tivity) has terrors, I have no hope of prevailing. 

If I am, not to be allowed to pursue this course in 
the interest of patriotism, I must plead the necessity 
of self-defence, and ask for the right which an out- 
post of an army, or even a stray citizen, has of fall- 
ing back on the main body when things get too hot. 
While in Pisagua, — notwithstanding the fact that I 
try hard to follow the lead of the coon who so gen- 
erously helped David Crockett husband his powder, — 
life was frequently made tedious to me by a Canadian 



POSSIBLE INVASION OF WASHINGTON. 277 

ship-master, v/ho, in a friendly, bantering tone, with- 
out one hostile word from me, kept up a constant 
cackling medley in which the words " fisheries, seals, 
Agamemnon, Tallapoosa," and other names of heavy 
British ironclads and small, rotten, American gun- 
boats, were so hopelessly jumbled together that since 
my escape from him I feel like one just recovered 
from a delirious fever. Why should I be exposed to 
this torture, when either our Constitution or the 
Declaration of Independence clearly states that I 
was created the equal of the citizen of St. Louis, who 
is exempt from all this wretched misery .'' 

Our defenseless condition and pitiful show on the 
seas have so long been the talk of the world, that 
many people of even this little smoke-inflated body 
politic (both whose late armies could be rubbed out 
by half of the late General Sherman's funeral escort, 
and whose balance between wealth and debt could 
perhaps be bought up by the State of Rhode Island) 
think it is only necessary to overcome a few little 
obstacles like the Baltimore (for doing which their 
plan doesn't seem yet to be perfected ; for, though 
her ability to fight has not yet been demonstrated, 
her disposition to try cannot easily be doubted by 
any one who comes in contact with her present 
commander), in order that their wretched little gun- 
boats may steam up the Potomac and make their own 
terms. Must we endure this forever when a little 
liberality, which our Government and people would 
never feel, would put us on a footing to be feared by 
all these small fish and respected by the large ones .'' 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

The Ocean Swell. — Three American Vessels. — Home News. — 
"Tuberculosis " Triumphant. — " Electrocution " to the Rescue. 
• — Chilian War News. — Curious Blue-jackets. 

After twenty days of alternately climbing to the 
summit of and plunging down from the most remorse- 
less succession of head seas that we have yet met, 
we have made the startling number of twenty degrees 
of latitude ; but also twenty-three degrees of longi- 
tude, which count the wrong way. Having performed 
the feat of circumnavigation, from a longitude point 
of view, before arriving at Valparaiso, it is not pleas- 
ant to be forced to run up the same longitude twice 
more; particularly in a region where a day's run of a 
hundred miles * must be regarded as very excep- 
tional. We have not been steadily at it; for, though 
I have always admired the Onward for keeping her 
course so well when there has been no perceptible 
wind, this sea has several times caused her to lose 

* " Miles " must be distinguished from " knots." The latter is ex- 
actly synonymous with " miles per hour," and expresses the rate of 
sailing. In what seem maritime novels to the eye of the unwary lands- 
man, we read of vessels making some hundreds of " knots " per day. 
This ranks with " nor'east " and " sou'east," and is the very freshest 
kind of " salt." The injudicious use of the apostrophe is the chief 
rock on which would-be sailors get wrecked. 

(27S) 



THREE AMERICAN VESSELS. 279 

her headway, turn side to it like a log of drift-wood, 
and roll till I have almost wished I had never seen 
deeper water than the cross-roads mill-pond. We 
have had nearly all south and southeast wind, usually 
very light, and this swell is from southwest, — a thing- 
usual in the anti-trade winds, but which in most 
cases we manage to avoid sailing against ; making it 
a point to get in a position to sail eastward, before 
we enter this region. A very few hundred miles 
when rounding Cape Horn or the Cape of Good 
Hope from east to west are about the only exceptions 
I have experienced in southern oceans, where this 
swell is much heavier and more constant than north, 
owing to its long course around the globe, almost 
uninterrupted by land. 

The other American vessel that sailed with us, 
another from Caleta Buena (twenty miles south of 
Pisagua), and ourselves have been in company nearly 
all the time ; making a display of cotton canvas now 
rarely seen on the high seas, — far from home, — 
and which reminds one of when the Stars and Stripes 
used to go to sea. They are yet in sight, but we 
have now reached a point where we shall probably 
soon get separated. 

We seem to be pretty evenly matched in sailing 
qualities, and yesterday {the rate of speed being from 
one to two knots, with perfectly fine weather which 
was sure not to change), I went on board the last- 
mentioned one, not only to see the captain, who 
helped me haunt the same ship-broker's office in New 
York last winter, but also to prevent him from wear- 



280 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

ing out a "hoist " of signals with which he had spent 
a good part of his time for several days inviting me. 
As he had his lady on board, — quite a curiosity on the 
high seas under canvas, — I found the situation much 
more interesting than that which I had left ; and as 
the two vessels were almost within hailing distance, 
made a stay which would rank well as a visit on 
shore, leaving at sunset and being about two minutes 
rowing across to my vessel. I got supplied with an 
item of stores which threatened to run short, it hav- 
ing been overlooked when I fitted out for home ; did 
a mutual and sympathetic " cuss " at the slowness of 
the weather, with the captain ; and got a pair of 
diminutive cats (of which they seemed to have an 
inexhaustible supply) and some American newspa- 
pers, which I have since been reading to learn what 
has been going on in my own country while I have 
been interesting myself in the affairs of Chili and 
other foreign nations. Most of the subjects discussed 
are not entirely unknown to me, though there have 
been some collapses and developments since I last got 
posted. 

Professor Koch's discovery for arresting that 
dreadful scourge, consumption, appears to have 
failed dismally ; but the exhilarating news that 
"electrocution" is a complete success, perhaps will 
go far toward cheering scientific minds which might 
otherwise be saddened at its failure. The fact that 
science has now discovered a perfectly painless 
death for cut-throats, should go far toward amelio- 
rating — at least to the more brutal class of that ilk 



TUBERCULOSIS TRWiMPITANT. 281 

— the fear of death which may be supposed to have 
been a check on them, and give them a chance to 
revel in their favorite pursuit ; while the horror of 
their executions will be transferred from their long'- 
suffering shoulders to those of the more sensitive 
and imaginative public. 

I notice that the chief objection raised by these 
sufferers, on the eve of v/hat they supposed would be 
the fatal day, was the fear of the recurrence of such 
a bungle as that of Auburn ; but as that point is now 
settled be3^ond a doubt, I see no further check on 
those of them who are certain that a little death- 
chair (save the mark) repentance will fix up the 
other objectionable feature. Perhaps gratitude for 
this boon will result in tJieir discovery of a painless 
method for the " taking off " of their victims ; in 
which case we may hail the "Mafias" and the 
"Molly Maguire Brotherhoods" as the emancipators 
of society, and laugh tuberculosis to scorn as a 
scourge w^iose occupation will henceforth be gone, 

— the science which failed in its direct attack having 
succeeded in sweeping its intended victims from the 
face of the earth before they get into its ghastly 
clutches. 

Thanks to a fortunate muzzling of the press, I 
have been able to read what was gleaned by one rep- 
resentative of that Argus-eyed body without suc- 
cumbing to a horror which was, nevertheless, far 
greater than that inspired by Chilian battle-fields ; 
and in the interests of sensitive human beings who 
are forced to stay on shore, I hope the same muzzle 



282 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

will be used at future festivities of the kind, — even 
to the extent of allowing quick-lime to deprive the 
heart-broken widows of the privilege of submitting 
the remains of their departed lords to the editorial 
scalpel, even if it also deprive them of a chance to 
plant flowers over their remnants. 

I hasten to explain that I see the great benefit to 
mankind which must result from the autopsies of 
these men ; but as it is now fairly established, 
the feelings of the public ought in future to be 
spared. 

Of course, the normal condition of the brain sup- 
plies us with a sure means of testing the validity of 
the many pleas of insanity made in our criminal 
courts ; and though it would be advantageous if we 
could restore the subject to life and the lunatic 
asylum, in case they should chance to be found good, 
— until the discovery of a process by which this can 
be done, I suppose we can use this unperfected 
scheme without hg-ving so many cases of the miscar- 
riage of justice in the future as in the past. Another 
great advantage of this "rapid-transit" route be- 
tween the two worlds I hasten to admit, as it may 
now be seen by the most obtuse. Heretofore, sup- 
posing the only object was to screen the victim from 
pain, I could not see why resort was not had to the 
charcoal-pan or the gradually increased opiates 
with which fiction abounds ; but I can now see 
these methods would make inroads on the brain and 
vitals, and so would not furnish to science so good a 
substitute for vivisection. 



"ELECTROCUTION'' TO THE RESCUE. 283 

Mark Twain's Prince and Pauper, the sad 
tale of Bleak House "Jo," and many other things 
of the kind which I have read, give a very vivid idea 
of the great contrast between the lots of different 
beings placed in this world by the mysterious hand 
of an inscrutable Providence ; but perhaps we seldom 
hear of a more marked discrepancy in the distribu- 
tion of favors, than that between Warden Brown, — 
stalking up and down his domain of Sing Sing 
Prison, reveling in the unalloyed consciousness of 
the feast of horror at which he was to preside, — and 
the poor, shivering reporters, lying about in outer 
darkness, vainly watching for a ghastly crumb with 
which to regale their readers the next morning. To 
be deprived of knowing the hour, thus making it 
impossible for them to even imagine the horror at 
the correct moment, seems an unnecessary cruelty. 

This plan of giving the warden a week from 
which to choose the fatal hour, though an ancient 
and time-honored custom, appears to have its draw- 
backs. Through it Slocum appears to have dis- 
carded the light literature with which he had been 
beguiling the tedious hours of imprisonment, and to 
have taken to conning biographies of the saints, 
fully twenty-four hours earlier than he would have 
deemed necessary had he known that he was not to 
suffer till Tuesday. Might not this unnecessary 
strain on the brain have resulted in " abnormal con- 
ditions " which would have baffled science ? Wood, 
too, seemed to regret his inability to start on the 
unknown journey at a propitious moment after a 



284 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

fresh packing of his spiritual knapsack, — which 
privilege has usually been enjoyed by the "ropocuted" 
criminals of the past. 

It is diverting to read the Chilian war-news, and 
it makes one wonder if its degree of accuracy may 
be regarded as a standard for the average of what 
we swallow with our coffee when on shore. By this 
means I have learned horrible facts about affairs 
in Pisagua during the struggle, several times more 
thrilling than any I could learn on th2 spot. These 
were supplied by a ship-master who lay off the port 
for two months without being allowed to enter. All 
this extra time on one's hands might well have 
tempted him to spin some rich yarns ; but, though 
I did not hear of any protracted blockade, I should 
perhaps lay the omission to neglect on the part of 
those who told me the story, if an explosion on 
shore (which is one of the chief items of this start- 
ling revelation) had abstained from " shattering the 
masts " of ships lying in the bay with the same ease 
with which it would have shattered the glass of a 
crystal palace on shore. I was told of an explosion 
during the very brief bombardment, but the narrator 
neglected to mention any serious results, and I cer- 
tainly got the impression that it was attended with 
very little or no loss of life ; yet, though I myself 
was in search of startling items, I maintain none of 
this last. But the masts of ships being constructed to 
stand — when a good distance from the beach beyond 
which the explosion takes place — a much sterner 
shock than a concussion which (notwithstanding the 



CURIOUS BLUE-JACKETS. 285 

dreadful number killed and their members scattered 
far out into the bay) left some people alive in the 
town, the story appears to have a tinge of that high 
coloring for the want of which those of my profes- 
sion are proverbially not famous for " spoiling a 
good yarn." 

It is very amiable in Admiral Walker to devote 
so much time to coaching the New York Naval 
Reserve Battalion. I was much interested in their 
evolutions ; but since I read the list of names, am 
inclined to follow Gov. Hill's lead, and keep my 
enthusiasm where either heat or cold will not sur- 
prise it too much. I am glad to note a few names 
which smell of salt water. In case of an expedition 
off-shore, it will be convenient to have a few who 
can care for the afflicted. It would cheer me to note 
so many M.D's among the A.B's, but that this is 
a case where even the injunction, "Physician, heal 
thyself," is futile. 

I like the admiral's scheme of allowing each ten- 
derfoot an old hand for " coachman," and might adopt 
the plan myself if stores were cheaper, or if the 
recruits would kindly bring along a spare ship at 
their own expense, that I might send them about 
their business when it should be time to eat. I 
suppose they will soon be able to capture Fisher's 
Island without these coachmen ; but I doubt not 
that the admiral will have the forethought to cau- 
tion them to remember their numbers. If they 
should some time get detailed for duty outside of 
Sandy Hook, Coney Island, or Newport, and an 



286 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

enemy should be near, it would much facilitate 
preparing for action, for each to know whose arm 
was to give him the necessary support. 

Far be it from me to doubt the valor of these 
gentlemen. The history of every fighting epoch 
from that of Independence down to our latest col- 
lision with the "noble" red-skinned wretches of the 
prairie, shows conclusively that — give them but the 
acre of barren ground for which Shakespeare's " Gon- 
zalo " was anxious to squander a thousand furlongs of 
sea — those names belong to men through whose 
veins flows fighting blood than which none better is 
to be found either on our continent or any other on 
the planet. But a long experience has taught me 
that valor on the high seas is not indigenous. Like 
a taste for tomatoes and olives, it is acquired only 
after a thorough acquaintance. Were I an enemy 
to New York, though she had ten times as many of 
these curious sailors as she has of those splendid 
volunteer troops of^which she may justly be proud, 
I should look out carefully to, as John Bull says, 
"Keep outside the three-mile limit." 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

The Falkland Islands. — Stalwart Patriotism. — South Sea 
Ladies of Fashion. — Imported Government Officers. — The 
Matrimonial Amadis. — The Many-titled Official. — The British 
Pirate. — A Compromise. 

I DID not mean to include the Falkland Islands 
in this voyage, having always regarded them as a 
place where ships put in a large amount of time and 
spend a great deal of their money getting repaired ; 
but though the ship has been all right, we are now 
six days out from Port Stanley, having put in there 
for a few days in the interests of science. Having 
been ill with fever for more than two weeks, and as 
the malady was assuming symptoms which appeared 
to me unique, I deemed it a duty to have it investi- 
gated by some one who could treasure any exceptional 
merits it might have, for the future use of the medi- 
cal fraternity. It is now customary for any one who 
makes what he thinks a medical discovery (and my 
case had accompaniments which were new to me 
and unanticipated by the learned man who wrote my 
medical book), to keep the matter a secret until he 
has developed it to the utmost ; but even if I had 
been sufficiently versed in the science to be capable 

(287) 



288 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

of an eifficient analysis, the absence of rabbits on 
which to make the first crude experiments, would 
have caused me to hesitate about pursuing such a 
course. One can make experiments on these ani- 
mals with less of the trepidation which might be a 
clog to research than on himself ; and if the result 
should be fatal, a rabbit less in the world strikes 
him as far less calamitous than his own demise. 

As I had invaded this little community in the 
character of invalid, the information gathered was 
necessarily more limited than usual, and consists of 
but little more than what was told me by my land- 
lady ; who was quite expert at making gruel and 
beef tea, and not at all deficient in colloquial powers. 
To her patriotic defence of her island home, I am 
indebted for much mitigation of what was told me 
by some others, and which would otherwise have left 
me under the impression that the life of a stranger 
in these isles hangs by a mere thread. 

One of her guests gave me a thrilling account of 
the treacherous nature of the earth in the "camp," 
it being but a thin and undulating crust, — even at 
the top of the highest hills, — beneath which is a 
horrible quagmire which will engulf any unfortunate 
man or beast who breaks through. He also asserted 
that it is absolutely necessary to have a guide who 
knows thoroughly the island over which one travels, 
in order to know when it is necessary to strike into 
a full gallop to avoid breaking through; on the plan 
that is employed by skaters, who can often go swiftly 
over a place which would not bear their weight when 



STAL WAR T PA TRIO TISM. 289 

standing still : a statement which seemed to me a 
hard pull on the laws of philosophy, — the gallop of a 
horse being attended with more elements conducive 
to penetration than the glide of the skater. This 
she condemned as largely " moonshine," but admitted 
the existence of many dangerous quagmires, though 
stoutly averring that not a horse could be found in 
the island which could be induced to go near enough 
to one of them to endanger himself or his rider. 

Another man (a native) made the startling revela- 
tion that whosoever gets lost in the camp must 
stick to his feet, as to lie down to sleep means never 
to wake. He may sit down and rest, but the instant he 
closes his eyes to sleep that sleep is iinal. He 
wasn't very definite in giving the reason, but hinted 
at some dreadful, miasmatic condition of the soil, 
which holds the sleeper enthralled while the Grim 
Phantom approaches unheeded. This horrible 
condition of things, to which he positively refused 
to admit one exception, and which is very por- 
tentous to one fond of rambling, shooting, etc., 
hung over me like a dark cloud until the advent of 
the next bowl of beef tea, when it was dispelled as 
before a summer sun ; the bearer maintaining that it 
was absolutely false, and that the sole causes of any 
one having such a chimera in his head were a few 
ordinary cases of exhaustion and death from expos- 
ure, — more particularly those of two British naval 
officers, — similar to what one hears of in any sparsely 
populated country where the weather is often severe. 
As a proof of its fallacy, she cited many cases which 



290 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

also showed that many well-meaning sheep farmers 
among these islanders are even more deficient in 
judgment than was Tam O'Shanter : they sit over 
their " nappy " until in such a condition that their 
faithful "Maggies " actually shed them on the way 
home; when they enjoy a refreshing sleep in the 
camp, before trudging home to meet the frowns of 
their " sullen, sulky dames." 

Having been born in these islands, of British 
parents, she once, in company with her mother, 
visited the British Isles ; but found them not good 
enough for her, and felt a continual anxiety to get 
back. She had read and heard of many things in 
the world to be seen, and thought it might be a 
pleasure to see them ; but found that she did not 
care for them, and was never satisfied till she got 
back to what most people would think a dreary, 
foggy island, only fit for habitation by seals and pen- 
guins. I think I never saw a better proof than what 
I learned here, of how very easily satisfied is a human 
being when out oi the reach of demagogues and 
agitators. 

There are no roads in the camp ; all the transport- 
ation being done by small vessels, which penetrate 
the numerous sounds, harbors, and straits with which 
the whole group abounds. Yet my landlady tells me 
of country dames who are as solicitous about dress 
as are the belles of Paris. As their dresses (for 
which they send to Europe with as little trepidation 
as is shown by a New York lady who patronizes 
" Worth" ) are nearly useless in the camp, where there 



SOUTH-SEA LADIES OF FASHION. 291 

may be no house but their own for many miles ; and 
as to charter a vessel for the transportation of baggage 
is far too expensive, these robes are stored in town, 
for use when the owners can get time to make a 
pilgrimage to that shrine of fashion. When this op- 
portunity comes they mount their horses, ride 
through the rough camp for many hours (according 
to their distance from town), make as many rounds 
of calls as they have new suits to display, and then 
stow them away where moths do not dare invade, 
don their riding-habits, and ride back to superintend 
the households of their lords till the next occasion 
on which to parade in Vanity Fair. These are the 
wives of the more fortunate ; but some of the stronger- 
minded leave their lords to cook their own mutton, 
and increase their disbursements to the extent of 
the rent of a cottage and cost of an establishment in 
town, from which they can make more frequent raids 
on the public eye. 

There are less than two thousand people on the 
whole group ; about eight hundred of whom are at 
Stanley, — the only settlement reaching a dozen 
houses. The only work outside of sheep-farming and 
its results, is repairing the- few ships that come in 
here disabled. They have no dock, but have hulks 
to put cargo in, and good places for heaving the ships 
down. The harbor is good, safe, and easy to make ; 
and the only charge is a compulsory Government 
pilotage of nine shillings per foot — six in, three 
out — draft of water. There is a light-house on the 
cape, but no light-dues are charged ; in consideration 



292 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

of which their one charge of pilotage may be con- 
sidered very reasonable. 

One fact is apparent from the first, even to the 
most casual observer ; and that is, that ambition is 
made of sterner stuff than is in the composition of 
these contented islanders. I have long known that 
our amiable ancestor J. B. was a true father to his 
colonies, even the small ones ; but I never before 
felt this so forcibly. To avoid all possibility of a quar- 
rel over any little position in the service of the Gov- 
ernment which might be deemicd better than that of 
the rank-and-file, every one of the offices which are 
worth a sigh, are carefully filled with the inexhausti- 
ble supply of K. C. B,s and "younger sons" which that 
venerable patriarch always has on hand ; and the peo- 
ple of the little colony pay their salaries in good, round, 
tangible duties on all luxuries and many necessaries of 
life, herd the sheep, keep the little shops which are not 
frozen out by the monopolizing Home Syndicate 
known as the Falkland Islands Company (which 
absorbs all the large, and most of the small, items 
of trade), and are happy. 

There are at least five, and I think six or seven, 
offices filled in this way ; and though the salaries are 
probably not large from a British point of view (I 
was told the Governor's is only ^6,000 [;^i,20o] a 
year), yet as these people never "go out" with less 
than will enable them to live with clean hands and 
carefully preserved nails, the aggregate must be a 
snug little sum. As they embrace the Church, the 
Law, and Medicine, there is little to trouble the 



IMPORTED GOVERNMENT OFFICERS. 293 

anxious parents of the school-boy about the choice 
of a profession for their hopeful son ; and I could 
not help thinking that if any little American village 
of eighteen hundred inhabitants had to put at the 
head of their tax-rolls the salaries of a Governor, 
Colonial Secretary, Colonial Judge, Colonial Sur- 
geon, Colonial Chaplain, and (I think) one or two 
other colonial officers, they would be in a position to 
spare but a very little of their superfluous breath in 
a complaint at having to pay a dollar or two each 
per year for pensions. 

The land, as before stated, is almost exclusively 
devoted to sheep-farming; the only exceptions being 
the cultivation of a very few vegetables, and rearing 
sufficient horses for riding, as well as a few cattle 
for home use. There is not a tree or shrub to be 
seen on the islands ; bunches of coarse grass called 
"tussach" being the heaviest product of the vege- 
table kingdom. This is harvested to feed the metro- 
politan horse ; and I think the camp horse and cow 
get some of it in winter, but am not sure. The 
sheep have to depend on their own exertions for 
food and shelter throughout the year, and any breed 
which is not expert at mining in snow-drifts for a 
July dinner is not available. I am told that some 
of the best breeds for wool-producing have to be 
excluded on account of habits of exclusive surface- 
feeding. 

Peat — of which the land all over the islands fur- 
nishes an inexhaustible supply — is almost invariably 
used as fuel. The destruction of what has been cut 



294 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

of this before being dry enough to escape freezing, 
seems to be the chief, if not the only, fear of the 
inhabitants when threatened with frost out of sea- 
son. It was amusing to hear the people complaining 
of insufferable heat, while the weather was about 
the same as in New England in early May. I think 
that if I had captured one of these people for exhibi- 
tion at Chicago (and it does not appear to have been 
an impossibility, as the United States consul, who 
is nearly twice my age, captured one of very tender 
years and has her snugly caged), it would have been 
necessary to take along a stock of ice and provide a 
continual shower bath, as they do for polar bears in 
the menageries. 

The United States consul here, as a source of 
information, proved rather barren ; that diplomatic 
gentleman's splendid achievement in the hymeneal 
lists having left him under the imjoression that any 
one who had seen the trophy, had exhausted the 
interesting features of the group. I have a host 
of friends who would have immediately pronounced 
him "a Daniel come to judgment" for holding this 
theory, and I felt for them that they were debarred 
from this opportunity to revel in their favorite 
theme ; but when one wishes for matter to divulge 
to the public, it is rather insufficient for him who 
systematically avoids personal descriptions, and, ex- 
cepting under extreme temptation (of which the 
present may be held as an eminent sample), person- 
alities of any kind. 

Having come ashore in a condition not conducive 



THE MATRIMONIAL AM AD IS. 295 

to interest in public affairs, I invaded the nearest 
bed without having conformed to the usages of the 
port, causing quite a flutter in official circles ; so I 
hailed the first call from our diplomate as a chance 
to stave off, by proxy, any evil consequences which 
might threaten to result. But, alas ! Though I 
succeeded in calming the government officials by 
promising to take advantage of the first opportunity 
to put matters straight, I learned that even family 
pride was unequal to the task of smothering the 
official complacency generated in the breast of this 
under-worked envoy by the arrival of an American 
vessel ; and, after having told me the cheerful and 
somewhat suggestive story of one of his late ser- 
vices to the flag — the dispatching of the remains of 
a departed ship-master to his relatives at home, — he 
painted the unsatisfactory condition of my business 
relations with the colony in such glowing colors, that 
it became evident to me he would never rest nor 
allow me to do so, until he had either seen them 
adjusted or had performed the above-named sad office 
for me. 

He being also an invalid, a fortunate bad turn of 
the weather gave me peace for a day or two ; as he 
was thereby forced to forego a sortie, and only fired 
a stray shot in the form of a note in which he de- 
plored the condition of the elements which had con- 
tributed so much to my satisfaction, and asked pathet- 
ically what could be done. It being so apparent that 
nothing could be done, I found it easy to frame an 
answer that would call his attention to this fact ; and 



296 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

before the weather favored another campaign, he had 
learned that he was the only person in town who was 
in trouble, and allowed me to convalesce in peace. 

While he was weather-bound, a call from a person 
who appears to be a sort of Sam Weller to the Gov- 
ernment had placed me on a good footing with that 
body. Acting as ad interim collector, he fixed 
up the papers in my room. This strange official 
first introduced himself as chief of police, and then 
informed me that he had been off to my ship and 
performed the custom-house duties. It has since 
transpired that he is also chief pilot, he having acted in 
that capacity when we sailed ; returning in a sloop of 
which he is commander, and which also acts as light- 
house-tender, — said sloop being officered by a warder 
of the Municipal Prison, and manned by two ignorers 
of Austral law and order, from behind the bars of the 
same stronghold. 

His call having been on Christmas Eve, his lan- 
guage was somewhat incoherent, on account of an 
evident anticipation of a well-known though some- 
what curious method of celebrating that holy anni- 
versary of the arrival on earth of peace and good- 
will ; notwithstanding which fact he succeeded in 
giving me an interesting account of the prolonged 
stay in their port of a British bark, which vessel was 
still there when we sailed. She arrived over six 
months ago, having lost her rudder and come to get 
another. She had her rudder replaced, and sailed, but 
before rounding the stormy cape experienced another 
collapse of steering-gear, and came back. This had 



THE BRITISH PIRATE. 297 

given the narrator a good opportunity to act in his 
capacity of pilot, but his work had but just com- 
menced. The crew had by this time got unruly ; 
and a long series of riots on board, attempts to "paint 
the town red," and skirmishes with the police, finally 
resulted in the crew and mate all getting ashore, 
and in the captain making a month's voyage in a 
schooner to Montevideo for a new outfit. 

The mate seems to have eagerly embraced the 
opportunity to figure as a model pirate where nov- 
elty would give it effect, and attended balls and 
parties in the full-dress equipment of that ilk, brist- 
ling with metallic knuckles and pocket carronades. 
The police finally succeeded in circumventing this 
rollicking marauder, but not till one of them had 
lost a portion of his face from contact with what my 
indignant historian termed "knuckle-dusters," after 
which they made the mistake of putting him into 
a cell without first attending to his disarmament. 
Their attention was first called to this error in tac- 
tics by the prisoner opening fire on the squad 
through an open grate ; and before they succeeded 
in repairing it, one shot had taken effect sufficiently 
to make work for the Colonial Surgeon and a 
vacancy in the force for some months. 

As the same vessel on her last voyage lay over 
half a year in some cove on the coast of Patagonia 
while a new outfit of masts and rigging was brought 
out from home to her, it seems that the Oiizuard's 
late discomfiture was very superficial in comparison 
to what some of her contemporaries get. I believe 



298 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

she was about ready to sail when we left ; but 
I think she will long be remembered by the people 
here, as one of the chief curiosities by which they 
have been visited. 

The day on which we sailed was a gala-day for our 
representative ; and he reveled in the use of ink, 
until my pilot began to fear that the shades (and fog) 
of evening would overtake him before he could get 
back and get his novel crew under lock and key. I 
am even the proud possessor of an authenticated bill 
of health, which will assure the frost-bound officials 
of Norfolk that the home of the sea lion and albatross 
was not infested with Yellow Jack or any of his fel- 
low-epidemics when we left. 

We were thirty-one days to Cape Horn — three 
more than our average from New Zealand ; which 
makes it appear that it is not an advantage to be on 
this side of the Pacific, if we have the head winds, 
head seas, and calms of the coast of Chili to contend 
with. The South Atlantic seems to be in very mild 
form this season, and our rate of speed since sailing 
from the islands doesn't appear to hold out a prospect 
of a speedy passage home. We got around the cape 
without any display of the heavy weather for which 
it is celebrated, having had only one day on which 
the sea was high enough to roll over us much. We 
are now nearing the part of the Atlantic of which I 
complained on the passage out, in which the Omvard 
nearly always finds the wind ahead, and north seems 
at present to be the favorite point ; but as we need 
to go a good distance east, while down here, in order 



A COMPROMISE. 299 

to avoid getting too near the coast in the southeast 
trades, we do not feel the inconvenience of it yet, 
and are in hopes of a change before we get to where 
we wish to go directly north. 

It was here that the Omvard got one of her best 
rewards for submitting to the will of Providence. 
South of the Falkland Islands, where the wind is 
usually westerly, is thought the best place to make a 
good part of this "easting." On her quickest trip 
from New Zealand, when she made a record on 
which she may sleep pretty safely, she was in that 
position with a "black southeaster" in prospect. 
She left four other vessels in company with which 
she had been trying to weather the Falklands, and 
ran back three hours to "make" Cape St. John, to 
get a "departure" from which to safely go inside of 
them. Her associates probably thought her the 
Flying Dutchman, and the mate seem.ed to think I 
had forgotten something in Auckland and was going 
back for it, or that I was what I felt much like — a 
lunatic ; but the result was a chance to run safely 
seven hundred miles in a wretched gale which would 
otherwise have blown her back at least a hundred. 
She reached our present position when thirty days 
out, and was in an established " streak " of westerly 
winds. To foresee inevitable defeat in season to 
make good terms with the enemy, though a hard 
part of navigation to learn, is beneficial at sea as 
well as on shore. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Nearing Home. — Fernando de Noronha. — The Nautical 
"Spiritual Thermometer." — The South Atlantic Physician. — 
Shipmates Too Long. 

Once more we are surrounded with significations 
of the approaching end of the voyage. Our old 
friends, the Bears of tlie North, are slowly climbing 
to their accustomed places ; while the other constella- 
tions — like mischievous school-boys who have been 
sadly misbehaving during the absence of the master 
but demurely resume their benches as that dignified 
person approaches his desk — are skurrying back 
into position in such perfect order that one can 
scarcely realize the fact that they have for nearly a 
year been skulking all over the heavens, till it was 
difficult to know a* celestial dog from an empyreal 
centaur. 

For several days we have been ploughing up old 
Neptune's hay-field, scattering his long, carefully 
raked windrows right and left, and spreading con- 
sternation among the myriads of crustacean field- 
mice who have long enjoyed their shelter undis- 
turbed. 

The high northerly swell has been almost steadily 
rolling down against us as a warning of what to expect 
when we get up to that magic line, the Gulf Stream, 

(300) 



FERNANDO DE NORONHA. 301 

— in and beyond which, during the winter, old Boreas 
holds almost entire sway, — and approach that dear, 
delightful, stormy, icy old sailor-trap, the border of 
"my own — my native land;" whose only recom- 
mendation to the returning rover, at this season of 
the year, is the fact that it is the border of his native 
land, and that he sees visions of a warm welcome 
beyond the deployed battalions of the Storm Fiend, 
if he can again turn the old fellow's flank or break 
his line without getting it so hot that he falls, or 
retreats in a wounded condition, — to retire for his 
ship's health to Bermuda or St. Thomas. 

The only glimpse of dry land we have had since 
leaving the Falklands, is Fernando de Noronha, in 
latitude four degrees south. This is an island about 
five miles long by two wide, with a few outlying 
islets and rocks ; and a high tower in its centre called 
"the Pyramid," reaching to the height of six hun- 
dred feet above the sea, so much like a church-spire 
that one wonders at its not having received the name 
St. Paul's, instead of that name having been given 
to the rocks to the northeastward, which we saw 
on the outward passage. It has been a Brazilian 
convict settlement ; but \yhether or not it is still 
kept up, I do not know. I nearly always make this 
or "The Roccas " (a circular reef with two islets and 
a light, ninety miles to the westward) when home- 
ward-bound. 

Perhaps the contest of the indisposed with the 
demon of ill-health is one of the hardest subjects to 
dress in alluring language ever attempted by writer 



302 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

or speaker; though I sometimes think the aggres- 
sively robust, who pound their chests and display 
their muscular development at all kinds of unpropi- 
tious seasons, equally a bore. Yet, as the reader can 
throw down this book with less impoliteness and 
cruelty than must be employed to knock down an 
invalid who has him cornered ; and as, to complete 
the picture I have attempted to paint, it seems nec- 
essary to call his attention to the difference between 
his privilege of telephoning the family physician 
when his pulse gets refractory, and our make-shifts in 
the same circumstances, I must ask him to forgive 
me for the indiscretion, if this chapter gets tinged 
with that theme. 

Again : he having made a good part of the voyage 
with me and left me in rather a "seedy" co"ndition 
near the home of the penguin, I have put it up (with, 
I hope, no suspicion of conceit) that he might wish 
to learn how I held out. I arrived at this hypothesis 
by mentally running over those I have sailed with for 
well toward a quarter of a century, — a bundle of 
characters well up to a dime-museum collection, — 
and failing to find one, with whom I had cruised one- 
tenth part of the distance, to get the latest report of 
whom I would not, if I had the key, read a page or 
two of Egyptian hieroglyphics. 

The Colonial Surgeon having left some of the ele- 
ments of disease in me (which, though they have not 
resulted in a repetition of the condition in which I 
introduced myself to that official, have nevertheless 
made me but indifferent company), I decided not to 



NAUTICAL "SPIRITUAL THERMOMETERS 303 

inflict much of my hospitality on the reader during 
the homeward trip ; for which he richly merits con- 
gratulation. Not only did he escape 

" A physician's trouble but without the fees;" 

but also the slowest passage the Onward "Wd^s made 
under my command. 

This is a sad accompaniment to my jubilation at 
beating our record on the outward trip ; but it is so 
typical of our life, that I should be failing in my 
agreement to show the whole of it, if I left it out. 
Perhaps there is no other profession which is suscep- 
tible to so large a range and frequent alteration of 
the spiritual thermometer, as this one of mine. When 
we are spurning degrees of latitude or longitude as 
though they were but little longer than miles, it 
seems the easiest thing in the world 

"To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon;" 

but when the change comes (which often is in a very 
few days), we feel more like moaning forth the sad 
lines : — 

" ' T was ever thus from childhood's hour, 
I've seen my fondest hopes decay." 

The Omvard got sadly victimized by the region 
mentioned in an outward chapter as our possible 
cruising-ground in a future state ; and though she 
escaped almost scot-free from the legitimate dol- 
drums, she has already put in fifty-six days since 
leaving the Falklands, — this making, exclusive 



304 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

of the time we lay there, ninety-one from 
Pisagua. I once said we had never been a hun- 
dred days at sea at one time, nor did we expect 
to be ; and though the very next passage reached 
ninety-nine, she has not belied my assertion yet ; 
but, as we have between four and five hundred miles 
to make to Hampton Roads, where we are bound for 
orders, unless the enemy Boreas treats us leniently 
we may this time only escape by having made the 
intermediate port. 

Fearing the mate might remind me of the capacity 
in which he had shipped (an agreement to listen to 
the results of frequent medical campaigns forming 
no part of it), and wishing to lighten the burden on 
him as much as possible, as well as to worry some 
one else, I took advantage of the fact of our cruising 
for a few days near the Calms of Capricorn between 
two English ships and close to one of them, to board 
this one and show the captain my tongue, as well as 
to learn with how much Christian fortitude he was 
bearing the light winds, and when he expected better 
ones. He looked grave and shook his head on see- 
ing the color of the vicious instrument with which I 
torture my friends when on shore, but which on 
board ship is of but little use save as a sort of *' health- 
ometer ; " but when we had pored over medi- 
cal works by authors new to me, ransacked the 
" Admiralty " medicine-chest, rifled his " medical- 
comfort " locker, and evolved from our different opin- 
ions a course of treatment satisfactory to both, I felt 
as much like a new man as though I had consulted 
one of the medical princes of tcn-a Jii-nia. 



SHIPMATES TOO LONG. 305 

When the Colonial Surgeon learned that I had 
taken some medicine of which he disapproved, he 
gave me a very learned discourse to show that I was 
utterly wrong in ** doctoring" myself; declaring that 
no one, even the best medical men, ought to do it. 
I listened meekly; yet when I asked him to suggest 
an alternative to which he and myself might resort, 
his eloquence received a sudden blow. But this 
South Atlantic diagnosis proved that he was right, 
as my health rapidly improved after it, though I have 
often since been bored by a return of the tiresome 
tokens. 

The fact is, after about fifteen years of almost con- 
tinual confinement between bulwarks, it is about time 
for me to follow the lead of Nebuchadnezzar of Scriptu- 
ral renown, and invade the grassy paddocks of my 
ancestral domain till I shall have again become 
friends with the Goddess of Health. We have been 
confined to a ship together so long, she has become 
tired of my company (a usual thing with shipmates), 
and has now deserted me on two successive home- 
ward trips. 

Perhaps many of my friends might suggest that I 
take up a permanent residence on shore. This may 
look well from their point of view, but not from mine. 
One of the chief arguments against this course, is 
the fact that I belong to a profession the financial 
habits of whose members consist, on shore, almost 
exclusively of dissemination rather than accumula- 
tion ; and one would need a look at other parts of 
"the book of fate" than "the page prescribed," in 
orde-r to learn when the condition of his money-locker 



306 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

would guarantee his finishing the voyage of life with- 
out danger of taking a trip to that haven of public 
resort which some authorities locate " over the hills." 

Again, notwithstanding the fact that we " find man- 
kind an unco' squad," I have friends in nearly every 
corner of our planet, rather than not meet whom 
again I should prefer — always with the countenance 
of the above-named Goddess — to break a lance with 
Neptune when in full war-paint ; and if I were to 
desert my profession now, nothing in the way of 
"rapid transit" short of the wings of an albatross 
(with 2i penchant ior both latitudes which that noble 
fowl seems to lack) would ever content me for any 
length of time. 

But lest I tempt so many to go to sea that there 
be none left on shore to keep the light-houses and 
feed the cows, I will state here that I believe the 
happiest portions of humanity to be those who are 
surrounded by a few friends, and who confine them- 
selves to the affairs of their neighborhood and never 
go beyond it except to go to the market-town, the 
races, the hunt, or the fair ; but I solemnly warn 
them that if they wish to remain so, they must never 
wander far from their native haunts : because, once 
having met even the sad specimens of sinfulness, 
faithlessness, selfishness, and (must I admit it .-* ) 
amiability which the human race affords, in other 
quarters of the earth, to resume their old way of life 
might be to consign themselves to a state of mind in 
comparison with which that of the Wandering Jew 
would be paradise. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Wreck of the " Onward." — The Wanton " No'theaster." — 
" Forward, or Currituck Beach ! " — " Cross-Bearings " Impossi- 
ble. — In the Breakers. — A Tough Mast. — A Friendly Bom- 
bardment. — Prince Draws the Line. — Reason and her Enemies. 
— Jack's Champions. — Prince's Popularity. — The Luxury of 
Indifference. 

I EXPECTED to have very plain sailing during the 
navigation of my pen through the last chapter, and, 
in fact, had one partially written v^hich promised to 
be clearer of shoals than any preceding one ; but an 
unexpected turn of Fortune's wheel rendered the 
conditions unfavorable for using it, and it had to be 
put aside as "unavailable." That was intended to 
be the close of the Onward' s present voyage, 
instead of which I now have before me the sad task 
of writing the closing chapter of her existence. 
When within twenty miles of our anchorage, after 
having sailed nearly twenty-four thousand miles 
for the purpose of landing a cargo of nitrate on 
our native coast, a simultaneous attack of Boreas 
on our right flank and Neptune in our rear — with 
the formidable earth-works of Currituck Beach on 
our left and no practiced scouts to assist our retreat 
in front — resulted in her surrender to, and subse- 
quent annihilation by, the batteries of those grim 
and relentless gods, after successfully beating them 
off or evading them for nearly eighteen years. 

For awhile I felt so guilty for having left her in a 

(307) 



308 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

helpless situation, and having escaped myself, that it 
seemed very much like sacrilege to write at all on the 
subject ; but since learning that others accept it as a 
natural result of navigation, and regard me as the 
unfortunate, I have realized that shipwreck has often 
been the end of more important expeditions than 
ours. I shall therefore try to treat it as but an 
ordinary case of the miscarriage of the plans of men 
— and mice. 

When I first cast my lot among navigators, I was 
under the usual impression that being shipwrecked 
is among the most common features of the profession, 
and should have then undergone it as something to 
be expected ; but after nearly a quarter of a century 
of immunity, I had conceived a kind of undefined 
impression that it was a calamity to which others 
were liable, but from which I was exempt. This was 
probably the result of escaping from many startling 
situations where it seemed inevitable, and I could 
account for it in no other way than by the vague 
theory that I enjoyed a special dispensation of Provi- 
dence from which many of my fellows were debarred. 
I yet believe that my former escapes were the result 
of some inscrutable system, there having been too 
many of them for the ordinary law of chances ; but 
I now fully realize the absurdity of any one getting 
the impression that he is exempt from any misfor- 
tune to which the human race is liable. 

Long before \nq. reached the outer margin of the 
Gulf Stream, old Boreas opened fire on us in his 
usual systematic manner at that season, and kept up 



THE WANTON "NO'THEASTERr 309 

such a rapid discharge of his heaviest guns that, but 
for the fact that the stream is in unusually good form 
this year, we should have been out of the race 
until a different system of weather had become 
established. After one of our most severe experi- 
ences in crossing the great ocean river, — one of the 
kind which would cause any descendant of Adam to 
wish to get under cover of some headland if he 
could do so without danger, — we were surprised to 
learn that we were in a position to do so, provided 
the weather continued to improve or even remained 
as it was then. We ascertained this by the depth of 
water, the nature of the earth brought up from the 
bottom on the sounding-lead, and a pretty good lati- 
tude from an altitude of the sun, which made its ap- 
pearance at almost exactly the right time. 

The sun being so much of a stranger to us, and 
we having seen so many indications that the strife 
had been going on long before we entered the lists, 
we supposed that the then present system of gales 
was becoming exhausted, and that the weather would 
continue to improve until the wind should get into a 
quarter to generate a repetition of it ; which, at this 
season, was likely to occur so soon, that it seemed 
desirable to make our escape as soon as possible.* 



* This same storm kept President Harrison and party confined for 
several days in the Princess Anne Hotel, and perhaps saved the lives 
of innumerable ducks on which they had designs. Probably, also, this 
same delusive break in it which we thought the end« and which lured 
us into disaster, was the cause of their leaving that charming haven, 
to pursue their favorite sport. But I thinlv that, at least for a day or two, 
the ducks must have enjoyed the weather better than did the hunters. 



310 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

Another fact which seemed highly favorable but 
which resulted in being the opposite, was that while 
the wind was northeasterly, the sea, which, though 
greatly abated since our coming out of the stream, 
yet ran very high, was nearly east ; where it would 
not impede us or hinder us from carrying enough 
sail to make the ship easily manageable. 

Early in the evening we made Currituck light, and, 
though the weather began to show bad symptoms, 
the soundings indicated that we were about as far 
away as it is usually visible. Meantime the wind 
was hauling more easterly, enabling us to make a 
still better course ; notwithstanding which, owing to 
an increase of the sea as the water became more 
shallow, my anxiety was rapidly increasing. I would 
now have gladly gone about to wait at least for day- 
light, and, if possible, better weather ; but the sea, 
having by this time got to the southward of east, 
would have been nearly dead ahead on the other tack. 
In this situation we could have carried but little sail 
if the other tack had been taken, and should have 
drifted helplessly toward the shore. This, together 
with the fact that the wind was hauling slowly in the 
same direction, left no course open but that of keep- 
ing on, and (to avoid falling to le'ward on tJiis tack) 
under as hard a press of sail as we could carry. 

We still hoped that the weather might not get 
worse ; but it soon commenced to rain, obscuring the 
light so that we could no longer see it. With all 
hands on deck, constantly heaving the lead, and 
watching for any intermission of the rain and mist 



"FORWARD, OR CURRITUCK BEACH!''' 311 

which would admit of our seeing other lights, we 
sailed on ; the wind hauling more favorable for us, 
but making it yet more impossible to go about. 

" Forward, or Currituck Beach ! " This was now 
the situation, and we kept on. 

Toward midnight we commenced to see a light of 
some kind in the intervals of showers, and after 
a while we established it as Cape Henry. Later, we 
got an occasional passing view of Cape Charles lights ; 
but the ship was rolling heavily, causing the compass- 
cards to swing about so that we could not possibly 
get <&. bearing of them sufficiently accurate to be of 
use in determining our position. We were now near 
enough for the soundings to be about the same most 
of the distance across the entrance. Farther in- 
side, the depth in the middle and near Cape Henry 
would be greater than on the north side of the 
channel, and once having got into the deep water 
and shoaled a little on the northern edge of the chan- 
nel, we should be safe if we kept the lead going. 

Meantime our only chance of determining our dis- 
tance from the light was the change of its bearing 
compared with the distance sailed by the log, which, 
allowing for a possible two and a half knots of head- 
tide, placed her nearly as far away as the middle- 
ground. Two and a half knots was the extreme force 
of tide mentioned on my chart or in my books, not- 
withstanding which I have since learned that it was 
running out above four knots. This would make it 
appear that she was much farther off-shore than she 
was, and would also cut her in faster toward the 



312 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

beach the instant we kept her off to run in, and got 
the current on the starboard bow. Not having the 
American tide-tables for the year, I could not be 
sure that the tide was running out, or that it was not 
running in ; in either of which cases we should be 
so far away as to necessitate jibing over to clear the 
shoals in the middle and on the other side of the 
entrance, if we got too near them on that course. 
This, if it could be avoided, was not to be thought 
of ; for, besides the danger of getting into the 
breakers, — which would at least make her unmanage- 
able, even if she did not strike, — to jibe in so close a 
place and in such a heavy sea might result in damage 
which would cause us to run ashore before we could 
get her into working condition. 

I may remark here that, in rainy weather, it is hard 
to judge from how great a distance a light may be 
seen. I have been surprised, after having felt keen 
anxiety, to see, through rain, the reflection of a 
revolving-light at ^every revolution, though the light 
was actually below the horizon ; which fact was 
proved by our position on the previous day and on 
that following, as well as by soundings and the dis- 
tance from headlands passed subsequently. On the 
other hand, I have been surprised and alarmed at 
getting close to lights without seeing them, when the 
conditions seemed favorable for seeing them from 
much longer distances. 

We were now in a position where one needs either 
a pilot, — a luxury unavailable on this part of the 
coast, except in fine weather, — a thorough knowl- 



"CROSS-BEARINGS" IMPOSSIBLE. 313 

edge of the place, respectable weather, a sea not 
entirely represented by mountains, or plenty of 
time ; and I had none of them. To have attempted 
to get a position by the other light would have 
necessitated my leaving my post by the lee rail, 
where I was steadily watching for some indication 
of land other than the glare of the light on the 
rain, and then waiting for a shower to pass and 
clear up enough to allow it to be seen. If suc- 
cessful in that, I must have waited for a revolution, 
at the moment of which I must have taken a bearing 
by a compass down in the binnacle, the only one 
which could be seen in the darkness. This, a 
"Baker" of only two years' use, was the best of our 
two spirit-compasses ; notwithstanding which it was 
swinging about three points. As an inaccuracy of 
half a point would make the bearing of no practical 
value, it was virtually useless to attempt it. Even if I 
could have overcome all these obstacles, to get down 
into the cabin and apply it to my chart was hardly 
to be thought of at that critical time. 

Just when we had got Cape Henry light on about 
the right bearing (as near as we could determine) 
to shoal the water if too near the middle-ground, or 
in other words if too far from the cape, the mate 

— who, with some of the men, was heaving the lead, 
while the others were helping me watch for land, 

— announced less water, at the same time saying we 
were too near the middle-ground. There were sev- 
eral reasons for believing this, among which was the 
fact that the mate had appeared to be acquainted 



314 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

with the locality ; but the chief of which was that 
it exactly tallied with my own opinion, established 
by all the observations I had been able to make^ as 
well as by the fact that I could yet see nothing to 
le'ward excepting the light and the glare ^ on the 
rain. 

I kept away a little, thinking to get into a safe 
depth of water between this shoal and the deep water 
next to the cape, where we could easily keep our posi- 
tion by soundings ; but the next cast of the lead 
showed still less water. I now knew that we were on 
the lee side, and immediately put the wheel hard 
down. When she had luffed almost enough to draw 
off, she struck. She cleared the first place, and came 
to enough to give us hopes, but struck again ; this 
time receiving a terrible shock, which caused her to 
become totally unmanageable, to luff to the wind, to 
get aback, pay off on the dreaded other tack, 
and drift into the roaring breakers — now plainly 
enough to be seen and heard — hopelessly, irre- 
trievably lost : the only possible question being that 
of whether or not we were all to go with her ; a 
question which at that moment appeared to depend 
on Providence — and Uncle Sam. 

At first this question did not strike me as one of 
vital importance ; but soon this became changed, 
and I devoted all my energy to saving our lives. 
The immediate danger appeared to be that of being 
killed by falling spars, as every shock threatened to 
bring some of them down. We had already lowered 
the after sails, and I determined to cut away the 



A TOUGH MAST. 315 

mizzen-mast, in order to partially avoid this danger 
by having one end of the ship for a refuge. We got 
out the axes and commenced to cut the rigging on 
one side, she rolling heavily the opposite way ; but 
before .,we had cut the last shroud, she got into a 
position to roll heaviest toward the cut side, and the 
mast failed to fall. 

We then commenced to cut the other side, but 
before we had finished she got exactly stern to the 
sea, and did not roll either way enough to break the 
mast, though its strength was far beyond what I 
thought possible. She now rose and fell with every 
sea, the shocks threatening the mast, but not break- 
ing it. This made it yet more dangerous to be on 
deck, but in her present position — stern to the 
sea — the breakers could not roll over her. This, 
together with the fact that she did not strike so 
heavily as when in deeper water, rising to and fall- 
ing from the full height of the sea, lessened the 
danger of her immediately breaking up. I therefore 
ordered all hands to go down into the cabin, where 
we could wait for daylight, and at the same time 
avoid the fall of the mast, which was now likely to 
go in any direction. 

We had several spells of cutting at the mast itself, 
and I offered a respectable reward — payable if we 
got ashore — to any one who should succeed in get- 
ting it overboard. One man, who had spent ten 
months seal-hunting and then nearly performed the 
feat of circumnavigation with us without any great 
pecuniary advantage, worked pretty hard to earn this 



316 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

reward. But a stick of wood ninety-two feet long by 
twenty-eight inches in diameter, surmounted by a 
forty-eight-foot topmast, is not an easy tree to cut, 
and when attached to a vessel pounding in a heavy 
surf is not a safe one ; so his attempts all failed, 
and daylight found it still standing. 

I have long regarded the Omvard?iS a vessel almost 
endowed, not only with life, but also with reason ; 
but though I have several times called the reader's 
attention to the symptoms of this, her last great feat 
stands out alone, unrivalled by anything I have seen 
performed by inanimate things ; and its display of 
gratitude and chivalrous, disinterested generosity, 
has rarely been equaled by even our own exalted and 
self -approved race. 

Every vessel I have before seen on a beach 
appears to have gone in as far as she could get, and 
to have lain side to the wind and sea, nearly on her 
beam-ends, while the breakers rolled over her steadily. 
This is also the position one sees in all illustrations 
of wrecks ; and the only exceptions of which I have 
heard are when the ships have been run ashore head 
on, under a press of sail, the captains having seen in 
season that being wrecked was inevitable, and run 
on for the purpose of saving life. Instead of this, 
our gallant craft struck when side to the beach, — 
about half a mile from the life-saving station, — 
dragged and pounded her way down till exactly 
abreast of it, and then ran head on till hard and fast 
in the sand, the very best position for buffeting 
the heavy seas so that there was not much danger 



A FRIENDLY BOMBARDMENT. 317 

of their washing us overboard, as well as the only 
one which would admit of our making any use of our 
boats. To this we appear to be indebted for our 
lives, as there seems to have been no other way of 
saving them. 

When it had become nearly daylight, a large 
steamer outside of us burnt flash-lights and blew her 
whistle repeatedly. Thinking that she was anxious 
to help us, we answered her signals as well as we 
could ; but she soon went off and left us. We have 
since learned that she also had been ashore, but had 
managed to back off, and was then trying every 
means to invoke one of those children of luxury — 
nurtured by "compulsory pilotage" and exempted 
from the usual accompaniment of exposure to wet 
weather — known to the nautical world as "the Vir- 
ginia pilot." If I am to pay pilotage, even when I 
do not want a pilot, I would much rather pay it 
inward than outward ; because it is a great advantage 
to start from a well-known position in fine weather, 
with a thorough knowledge of the tide, rather than 
to pick one's way on a stormy coast, without knowing 
when the current is drifting him to perdition. 

No attempt was made by the life-saving crew to 
launch their boat, as there was no possibility of even 
the fine surf-boats belonging to that service living 
for a moment in the savage breakers between us and 
the shore. This being out of the question, they 
commenced at daylight to fire twenty-pound shots, 
with rocket-lines attached, toward us, every one of 
which fell short. I knew that Uncle Sam was not 



318 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

in a position to shoot hard at his enemies, but hoped 
his guns were powerful enough to save the Hves 
of his friends. At this stage, finding that the main- 
declc was full of water, and that she would probably 
keep sinking into the sand until her hull was under 
the breakers, and also judging that as soon as the 
cargo of nitrate should have become dissolved she 
would probably roll over, we resolved to try to get to 
sea in our own boats. 

The mate first suggested this, but as it looked 
highly probable that they would be swamped by the 
surf, which, though but mild in comparison to what 
it was farther in-shore, was yet very formidable, and 
as it seemed improbable that we could pull against 
it, I did not at first fall into the idea, anything seem- 
ing better than the sure death which must result if 
we should get a ship-length farther in-shore. I finally 
consented, after having hit on the expedient of mak- 
ing a long, new line fast to the stern of the ship and 
securing it to one boat, to the stern of which the 
other was to be m&.de fast by a line about five 
fathoms long. This would leave us a chance to haul 
back to the wreck, and wait for the pis aller, in case 
the boats filled. 

The ship being bow on, and stern to the sea, we 
could keep the boats from being stove against her 
side, the same as if riding at anchor ; and we soon 
had them ready to receive us. Getting into them 
was not an easy matter, as it would not do to have 
them near the side of the ship except between 
breakers, and we could only now and then sheer them 



PRINCE DRAWS THE LINE. 319 

In enough for some one to jump in, — the best chance 
being far from tempting. When all were in but the 
mate, Prince, and myself (the cats were already in 
and adding hideous wauls to the din), we came to the 
first serious check. This was on attempting to get 
Prince to leave the home where he had passed all his 
days since a puppy; against doing which he protested 
with all his might, — which, in a St. Bernard of fine 
physique, was not inconsiderable. 

Several times the boats were sheered in to receive 
him ; but each time, during the few seconds before 
they must be pushed off to avoid the next breaker, 
we did not succeed in getting him over the rail. We 
were finally forced to make a rope fast to his collar, 
throw the end to a man in the boat, and -then throw 
him into the water. If he had now swum toward the 
boat, or even not swam at all, he would have got in 
without much damage ; but he swum hard to get 
back to the ship, and proved too strong for the sailor 
at the other end of the rope until he had got partly 
strangled, partly drowned, — entirely exhausted, — 
and when he was hauled in he was in a bad plight. 
In another minute the mate and myself were in also, 
and we were ready to make the next move in our 
game for existence. 

Thus far the mate was entitled to the credit of the 
movement; but just when the time had come to get 
the benefit of the Hne, but for which I should not 
have consented to try it at all until we had waited 
for further developments, he ordered it to be let go, 
and it was with the utmost difficulty that I prevented 



320 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

this being done, in the excitement and amid the roar 
of the breakers. During my illness the mate had 
got into the habit of taking the lead, and, as I had 
not yet fully recovered and as his judgment had al- 
ways met with my full approval, it was natural for 
him to still think it his place to do so ; but knowing 
myself to be one of the favored few on whom a des- 
perate situation acts as a tonic, bringing my capacity 
for coping with it above its normal condition rather 
than below it, I thought it time for me again to 
come to the front. 

Notwithstanding a general incapacity for rowing 
displayed by the crew, caused by ignorance and inex- 
perience on the part of some of them and excitement 
or timidity on the part of the rest ; as well as several 
accidents, such as the breaking of rowlocks, etc., any 
one of which would have sent us into the heavy 
breakers if we had been adrift, there were several re- 
currences of the same scene, in each of which I 
nearly used up my voice before preventing the man 
from letting us go — to Davy Jones's locker. I 
then settled the matter by having the line led aft 
and holding the end myself, until we had thoroughly 
tested the rowing-gear and pulled up abreast of and 
a little past where it was made fast. We had now 
got out of the heaviest of the breakers, and after 
coaching my crew thoroughly, giving them time to 
get confidence in the prospect of success, and look- 
ing out carefully that all were settled to their oars 
and pulling a regular, strong stroke, I slipped the 
line and we soon had the breakers all inside of us. 



REASON AND HER ENEMIES. 321 

After pulling well to windward, during which time 
a strong tide set us toward the entrance of the bay, 
we turned and headed for the land at a point about 
three or four miles inside of the light-house, where 
there was not enough surf to prevent our landing 
safely. The captains of the life-saving station 
and light-station met us at the beach and pointed 
out the best place to land ; the former being accom- 
panied by a part of his crew, and the latter having — 
what was of more interest to me — his horse and 
trap. He took the cats and myself into the trap 
and drove us to his house, in one of the vilest rain- 
storms I have seen, which caused one of the cats to 
climb to my shoulder and protest with a voice worthy 
of a Bengal tiger, and which made me doubly ap- 
preciate the warm fire and good cheer to which he 
treated me on our arrival. He then drove me to 
the life-saving station, where the dog and crew had 
arrived before me. 

Probably the reader who has not been at sea 
enough to understand how absolutely a ship can 
become a chief part of one's existence, — like the 
combination of a home and a favorite dog or pet 
horse, — cannot understand how I should be ready 
for reproaches from all quarters when I got ashore. 
This was the case, however ; the excitement of trying 
to save our lives having, the instant the danger was 
past, given place to an overwhelming sense of shame 
at having left her for what at that time seemed to 
me so small a matter as that of saving our lives. 
When the people whom we met congratulated us on 



322 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

having done this successfully, by a Hne of tactics 
which they pronounced unique as far as their experi- 
ence went, I felt so much the opposite of a hero that I 
suspected them of shamming, to avoid the embarrass- 
ment which might result if they spoke what was 
actually in their minds. 

I knew I had done exactly right, and that, 
after having done all I could to save my old compan- 
ion, I had but deserted a useless, wrecked mass of 
wood, iron, copper, hemp, and canvas ; but the 
facts that I could not keep this idea in my head for 
two consecutive seconds, and that we had just come 
out victorious in one of those games, the success of 
which depends on the manager displaying the utmost 
coolness, firmness, and self-possession of which a 
human being is master, show how narrow is the line 
between the condition of the most self-reliant of 
mankind, and that of the raving, maudlin, irrespon- 
sible lunatic. The moment Reason ceases her strug- 
gle to overpower the host of unbidden and ludicrous 
fancies always striving for precedence, her battle is 
as hopelessly lost as that of a general who has 
allowed the enemy to get possession of his guns 
and to outflank him unobserved.* 

* The Omvm-d finished her career in a characteristic manner, and 
kept her record below a hundred days. She also led her two associates 
of the South Pacific, they both coming in later. She always managed 
to hold her place well in front, even when I was unwell and unable to 
keep up my custom of watching with her whenever she was working 
hard; but she got along so slowly this time in the South Atlantic, I 
feared she was going to draw the line at my making a harbor of refuge 
for personal repairs, and allow her fellow voyagers to keep ahead. She 
died as she lived, without ever once putting me in a position to avoid 
looking her owners in the face. 



JACK'S CHAMPIONS. 323 

On the following day, leaving Prince and the cats 
to be entertained by the people of the life-saving 
station, and the officers and crew to follow me when I 
should order them to do so, I went to Norfolk to learn 
that life, which can easily be made burdensome to a 
ship-master whose ship is afloat, can be made doubly 
so when he is devoid of money and credit, and is yet 
held responsible for the welfare of the strange fam- 

I do not like to credit her with enough generosity to commit suicide 
at the right time; but since I have been on shore, and learned how 
dull business for shipping is, it looks as if she might have done it to 
avoid becoming a burden on their hands. This looks somewhat like 
her having gone back on me at the last moment, as I owned none 
of her, and consequently only lost a position, which the underwriters 
do not make good; but I have never attempted to make the point that 
she looked out to fill my purse, — rather to put me in a position to be 
welcomed by my owners. Perhaps she did not wish me to run her at 
a loss, in the fear that doing so, and at the same time pocketing my 
salary, would have made me unpopular with the owners, — a position 
I have never been able to stand, even when the only remedy has 
been to get ashore in the Antipodes. 

When she shed her rudder and thereby compelled us to go into Val- 
paraiso for another, I thought it a case sure to result in loss to her 
owners; but they insured the nitrate freight to cover the debt,— freight 
insurance not being customary with us except to cover debt, — and, 
consequently, although we did not arrive to collect this freight, the 
insurance paid it. This left the insured owners — and if any small 
ones vv'ere uninsured, they must have known it is unsafe to trust old 
Neptune in his various moods except on a large and varied scale — to 
recover their share of the partial loss repaired at Valparaiso, and put it 
into their pockets as money which had cost them nothing, and which 
they never would have received if the Onward had not been a vessel 
capable of laying her plans a long way ahead. 

If I had owned any of her, she could have performed neither of these 
exploits without making a chance for suspicion to rest on me; but she 
knew what is more valuable than money, although it may not look so 
on the surface, and has served me well if she has left me where I shall 
weary no one. She certainly chose one of the best spots on our coast, 
as well as the best season, to enact the final scene without leaving me 
to be suspected of complicity by the underwriters. She might have 
chosen many places where the chances vi^ould have been better for us 
to get ashore; but she could not look out for both, and, as before 
remarked, did all she could for us after she got on. 



324 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

ily which the condition of shipwreck places on his 
hands. After several days of threats from those 
who always help Jack (and themselves) get his 
money, I was placed by my owners in a position to 
pay in full the mate and boy, — who had believed I 
was doing all I could to get the money, — as well as 
two more who had been at work with the wreckers 
and had had no opportunity to sign away their 
hard-earned pay ; and to pay — minus from forty 
dollars down, according to amount due — the oth- 
ers, who were not so fortunate. I had kept their 
lawyer posted on my movements, in case he should 
chance to care to keep the expense of the affair 
down as much as possible, and now immediately 
notified him that I was in a position to pay them 
off. One hour and three-quarters later he filed a 
libel in the United States Court against the wreck- 
age (which netted ^205, his clients' claims amount- 
ing to about ;^70o), for no reason I could discover 
excepting the small chance of their receiving their 
pay and neglecting 'to pay him his fees. This put 
them in for five dollars each, costs, and some delay 
before we could get the matter adjusted; it being 
now impossible to pay them until our superfluous 
arbitrator, Uncle Sam, had received his fee and 
retired. Paying these costs saved them from being 
robbed to this extent after they had finished with 
me ; but as it was the first time I had seen my men 
pay a large fee for no purpose, before they had 
retired behind the mysterious screen from the 
shadow of which they usually emerge in a very 



PRINCE'S POPULARITY. 325 

short time to sign new articles, it struck me with 
more than usual vividness. 

My family being now reduced to Prince and the 
cats, I returned to the beach to learn that the former 
had confined himself to a very light diet as soon as 
I had left, and that for the last few days he had not 
eaten at all ; which had left him more in the shape 
of a greyhound than the heavy animal I had last 
seen. Supposing from this that he was seriously ill, 
I entirely forgot the cats, and we retired to the Prin- 
cess Anne Hotel, a few miles below on the beach, 
where I was surprised to see him immediately attack 
beef-steaks in the most alarming manner, as if he 
had only been waiting for accustomed associations 
with which to season them. It was many days 
before I could get ten feet away from him without 
his trying to follow me ; but as he was a great hero 
among the guests and authorities of the hotel, on 
account of the loyalty he had displayed to his 
ocean home, he enjoyed dispensations rarely 
accorded to even such rare creatures as he, — if 
forced to walk on four legs, — and we could keep 
together most of the time without inconvenience 
to me. 

He also received this courtesy for several days at 
the Hygeia Hotel at Fortress Monroe ; but after he 
had got acquainted, he lost some of his good behav- 
ior, and his ungraceful antics, when playing with 
children about the office, caused courteous and 
regretful restrictions to be laid on his abused lib- 
erties. Having thus far avoided separation, we 



326 UNDER COTTON CANVAS. 

decided to accept an invitation just received to finish 
our stay — which was to be very brief, the ship's 
obsequies being about finished — in a casemate of 
the fort ; and we accordingly left the hotel. I hope 
those who manage this delightful home-to-the-stran- 
ger did not misunderstand our reason for leaving. I 
tried — and, I trust, successfully — to assure them 
that, far from taking offence at the embargo placed 
on the pranks of my rude associate, I felt nothing 
but gratitude for the great length of time he enjoyed 
immunity from it. 

Our host — whose delightful hospitality is hard to 
resist, and is eagerly embraced by me on the shghtest 
weight being added to the steady pressure of his 
invitations — gave Prince a warm welcome on 
account of the quiet and dignified manner in which 
he had, on former occasions, taken on himself the 
responsibility of a sentry and guarded the entrance 
till morning. 

This enabled us (with the exception of one night 
on the steamer coming north, when his remonstrat- 
ing bark throughout the night caused the authorities 
to break a rule in his favor during the remainder of 
the passage) to keep together until we got placed 
where we could stay in one position long enough for 
him to have faith in my return ; since which he has 
dropped the special babyhood assumed at the date 
of the wreck, and now eats his meals without my 
company and waits patiently till I come. He then 
only displays a little clumsy joy, as he used to do 
when I came on board the ship after having been 
ashore. 



THE LUXURY OF INDIFFERENCE. 327 

Never, until when making this passage up the coast, 
did it occur to me that there could be any pleasure 
in being at sea in a northeaster, plunging through a 
head sea, and with the ship constantly enveloped in 
a wretched maze of rain, snow or sleet. Being 
somewhat out of humor with old Neptune, I could 
not be quite sure that I had not become afraid of 
him ; and to ascertain whether or not this was the 
case, had a great deal of weight in my choosing the 
outside route, instead of that via Cape Charles, 
which is nearly all rail. 

But I have rarely enjoyed a situation better than 
I did this, when the captain and officers of the 
steamer were searching anxiously for the lights of 
the New Jersey coast. The contrast was so great 
between my thorough irresponsibility and the sus- 
pense I am usually in at such times, that I am afraid 
I enjoyed their perplexity as much as one ought to 
enjoy a sermon. The Old Dominion Company had 
undertaken to land me in New York, and I either 
felt perfectly confident that they could do it, or was 
entirely indifferent to whether or not they should 
succeed. 



The End. 



frWO DELIGHTFUL BOOKS, 

Phillips Brooks : Bishop of Massachusetts. 

An Estimate. By Newell Dunbar. Illustrated with 

views of Trinity Church, Boston. i vol. Elzevir, i6mo, 

113 pp. White and gold, $1.25 ; cloth, gi. 00. 

A refined and scholarly study of a great man. — Boston 

Seems to have been written because the author could not 
help it. — New York Jmtrnal of Commerce. 

Watchwords from John Boyle O'Reilly: 

Edited and with Estimate by Katherine E. Conway. 

Beautifully illustrated. i vol. Elzevir, i6mo, 100 pp. 

White and gold, ^1.25 ; cloth, $1.00. 
It was not an Irishman, but a son of the Puritans, 
who wrote of John Boyle O'Reilly: "I wish we could 
make all the people in the world standstill and think and 
feel about this rare, great, exquisite-souled man until they 
should fully comprehend him. Boyle was the greatest 
man, the finest heart and soul I knew." 

MEDICAL BOOKS FOR LAY 
READERS. 



Therapeutic Sarcogriojuy ; A New Science of 

Soul, Brain and Body. Ey Joseph Rodes Buchanan. 
M. D. illustrated. With glossary. i vol., large 8vOj 
700 pages, clotii. Net, $$00. 
A work wliich promises to create a total revolution in pliy 
siology and medical philosophy. 

Sea-Sickness. How to Avoid It By Herman 

Partsch, M. D. i6mo, cloth, |i. 00. 

A valuable little volume that should be in the hands of 
every person who makes a sea voyage. — Boston Transcript. 

We cannot recall a work that deals more thoroughly or 
more understandingly with the matter. — Boston Saturday 
Evening Gazette. 

The Care of the Eyes in Health and Disease. 

By D. N. Skinner, M. D., Maine Medical Society. Illustra- 
ted. With index. i2mo, 116 pages, cloth, $1.00 

A valuable treatise, written for the general public by one 
of the best known experts on the subject. 

Mailed, to any address, postage paid, on receipt o^^riCv Bp 
the publisher, < 

J. G. CUPPLES, 250 Boylston St., 
BOSTON^ 



NEW FICTION. 



The Chevalier of Pensieri-Vani 5 Together 

with Frequent References to the Prorege of Arcopia. By 
Hbnry B. Fuller. Half binding, $1.25; paper, 50 cents. 
The exquisite pleasure this book has given me. — Charles 
Eliot Norton. 

A precious book. . . It tastes of genius. — James Rus- 
sell Lowell. 

A new departure, really new. — Literary World. 

Penelope's Web : A Novel of Italy. By Owen 

Innsly, author of " Love Poems and Sonnets." A bit 
of exquisite prose ( the first ) from Miss fennison, whose 
" Love Poems and Sonnets " tuent ikro2tgh so many editions. 
i2mo, cloth, $1.50. 

Stray Leaves from Newport : A Book of Fan- 
cies. By Mrs. William Lamont Wheeler. Illustrated. 
Finely printed, and most beautifully bound in tapestry, 
white and gold. i5mo, cloth, S'-So; paper, 50 cents. 
Fojirth Edition. 

By far the most popular book published upon America's 

aristocratic resort ; written, too, by one of its leaders. 

Something About Joe Cummings ; or, A Son of 

a Squaw in Search of a Mother. i2mo, cloth, $1.50. 
A rough and ready story of the New South-west ; not 
vulgar, but strong, with a good deal of local color in it. 

Eastward : or, a Buddhist Lover. By L. K. H. 

i2mo, cloth, $1.50. 
Sure to please those who concur with Sydney Smith as 
to the meaning of doxy, 

Hiero-Salem ; TJie Vision of Peace. By E. L. 

Mason. Illustrated. A curious and remarkable novels 
interesting- to those investigating Buddhism, Theosophy and 
the position of "wo-mati. Square i2mo, 508 pages, cloth, $2.00. 

Fellow Travellers: A Story. By Edward 

Fuller. i2mo, 341 pages, cloth, $1.00. 
A brilliantly written novel, depicting New England life, 
customs and manners, at the present time. 

Mailed, to any address, postage paid, on receipt of price By 
the p2iblisher. 

J. G. CUPPLES, 250 Boylston St., 
BOSTON, 



NEW BOOKS. 



American Etieas for lEngltslj l^eatrers.— 

By James Russell Lowell. With Por- 
trait from Partridge's bust, and Introduc- 
tion by Henry Stone. Elzevir; i6mo., pp. 
94 + xvi. Cloth, $i.oo; white and gold, 

$I.2S- 

€f)e ?l?ttitiert ILtfe of tf)C l^cart.-Thoughts 

from the Writings of Father A. C. A. 
Hall. Edited by A. M. O. With full- 
length Portrait, and Introduction by Dr. 
John S. Lindsay. Elzevir; i6mo., pp. I02-|- 
xvi. Cloth, $1.00; white and gold, $1.25. 

CCtrCUnt ^raeCOrita.— The Versified Collects 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, to 
which are added a number of Poems. By 
T. W. Parsons. Elzevir; i6mo., pp.94 
-{-X. Cloth, $1.00; white and gold, $1.25. 

^Ero = "^mErtcan jFolfe ILorc, toid round 

cabin fires on the sea-islands of South Car- 
olina. By. A M. H. Christensen. Illus- 
trated. i2mo., pp. ii6-l-xiv. Cloth, $1.25. 
Negro Stories in the Negro Dialect. 

STije I^OItSC of ©romiaell, and the story of 
Dunkirk. — A Genealogical History of the 
Descendants of the Protector, with An- 
ecdotes and Letters. Illustrated with por- 
traits, scenes, maps, plans, etc., etc. By 
James Waylen. Cloth, $3.75. 

^ Falume of Poems. — By Mrs. m. a. b. 

Kelly (State Normal College, Albany, N. 
Y.) With Portrait. Large i2mo., pp. 254 
-)-xiv. Cloth, $1.25. 

Sonnets, Songs, ILaments.— By cara e. 

Whiton-Stone, Portrait. Large i2mo., 
pp. iS;-fxvi. Cloth, $1.25. 

Hosing ©rOUntr.— a series of sonnets. By 
Herbert Wolcott Bowen, author of 
"Verses," "In Divers Tones," etc. Square 
i2mo., pp. 79-f-x. Cloth, $1.25. 

ilHemortals of ^ulti ILang Sgne. — Poems 

by Thomas C. Latto. Svo., pp. 116. 
Cloth, $1.00. 

CUPPLES COMPANY, 

BOSTON. 



NEW BOOKS. 



EfjE Kba ^})nOSOpf)erS.— A quaint, sad 
Comedy. Svo., pp. 36. Paper, 50 cents. 
" The temper in which philosophers dis- 
pute." 

IBurnsiana.— A collection of literary odds 
and ends relating to Robert Burns. By 
John D. Ross, author of " Scottish Poets 
in America," etc. 8vo., pp. 115. Cloth, 
$1.50. 

i^OUnll 23urns' ©rabe. — The Paans and 
Dirges of many Bards. By John D. Ross. 
New and enlarged edition. i2mo., pp. 316. 
Cloth, $1.50. 

Portrait of JSisIjop p})illips JSrooks.— 

From the original by Charles L. Adams 
(Boston Institute of Technology), exquis- 
itely colored by hand by Alice Hart. 
18 inches by 10 inches. Price, $6.00. 

Portrait of JFatfjtr ^. C. a. ?§aIl.-From 

the original by Charles L. Adams (Boston 
Institute of Technology), exquisitely col- 
ored by hand by Alice Hart. About iS 
inches by 10 inches. Price, $6.00. 

ffimatcf)faortJs from Soljn Bogle ©'-taeillg. 

Edited and with Estimate by Catherine 
E. Conway. Edition de luxe, on large 
paper, with extra illustrations, including 
the death-masla. Half binding, $2.50. 

Connerticttt J^iber l^eetis, blown by the 

"Peasant Bard." Poetry of the Farm and 
Rural Life. By Josiah Dean Canning. 
Large i2mo., pp. i36-|-xvi. Cloth, $1.25. 

% ?|oIs SJSrlitiing fHissal.— The wedding 

Service of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
followed by a blank marriage certificate, 
both exquisitely illuminated by hand on 
parchment. Bound in morocco, with silver 
corners. Price on application. 



CUPPLES COMPANY, 

BOSTON. 



RECENT AMERICANA. 



Paul Eerere : A Biography. By Elbridoe 
Hbnry Goss. 
Embellished with illustrations, comprising portraits, his- 
torical scenes, old and quaint localities, views of colonial 
streets and bui'dings, reproductions of curious and obsolete 
cuts, including many of Paul Revere's own caricatures and 
engravings, etc., etc., executed as photo-gravures, etching*, 
and woodcuts, many of them printed in colors. 
2 vols., 8vo, cloth, ^6.00; large paper, Jio.oo. 

Porter's Boston, Forty full-page, and over fifty 

smaller illustrations, by Gborge R. Tolman. 3d edition. 

I vol., large quarto, half sealskin, ^6.00. 
A few copies of the exceedingly scarce first edition can be 
had by direct application to the publisher, specially bound in 
half calf extra, for $9.00 net. 

The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674-1729. 

Edited by Dr. G. E. Ellis, W. H. Whitmore, H. W. 
ToRREY and James Russell Lowell. With index of names, 
places and events. 3 vols., large 8vo. Net, %\o.oo. 

This is a complete copy (printed at the University Press) 
of the famous diary of Chief Justice Sewall, the manuscript of 
which is one of the treasures of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society. It abounds in wit, humor and wisdom, and is rich in 
reference to names of early American families. 

Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles. By Parker 

PiLLSBURY. i2mo, 503 pages, cloth. Net, ^2.00. 
An authoritative and comprehensive work by one of the 
original leaders in the anti-slavery movement ; not stereotyped 
and, as fev/ copies remain for sale, it is certain to become an 
exceedingly scarce book. 

Life of Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, Baronet : His 

English and American Ancestors. By Thomas C. Amory. 

With portrait. Large 8vo. Net, $i.$o. 

An elaborate biography of one of Nantucket's most famous 
sons, who rose to high rank in the British navy, and afterwards 
founded the celebrated Coffin schools in his native island. 
Interesting not only to members of the Coffin family, but to 
genealogists. 

Mailed, to any address, poitage paid, on receipt of price by 
ike publisher. 

J. G. CUPPLES, 250 Boyhton St., 
BOSTON. 



RECENT TRAVEL, ETC. 



Vigilante Days and Ways : The Pioneers ot 

the Rockies. By the Hon. N. P. Langford. With por- 
traits and illustrations. 2 vols., 8vo, cloth, 911 pages, ^6.00; 
half morocco, $10.00; full morocco, ^12.50. 

Remarkable for facts and for being one of the most stir- 
ringly written accounts of an otherwise unknown period of 
American history ever made by a Western author. It throws 
new light upon the section of the country of which it treats, 
and upon a class of men of heroic mould but humble origin, 
whose names now stand high in the New Great West. 

Glimpses ©f Norseland. Bj Hetta M. Her- 

VKY. Illustrated, i vol., i6mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.25. 

The experiences of a bright American girl among the 
Scandinavians : crisp and suggestive ; showing what to do, 
what to see, and what not to do. 

Bermuda Guide : A aesci-iption of everything 
on and about the Bermuda Islands, concerning which the 
visitor or resident may desire information, including their 
history, inhabitants, climate, agriculture, geology, govern- 
ment, military and naval establishments. By James H. 
Stark, with Maps, Engravings and 16 Photoprints, i vol., 
i2mo, cloth, 157 pages, §2.00. 

Bahama Islands: History and guide to the Ba- 
hama Islands. By J. H. Stark. With many illustrations. A 
companion to Bermuda Guide, i2mo, $2.00. 

Boating Trips, on New England Kivers. By 

Henry Parker Fellows. Illustrated. Square izmo, cloth, 

j!i.25. 
This capital book, the only American work so far upon its 
subject, was warmly commended by the late John Boyle 
O'Reilly, who saw in it the beginning of an interest in our 
American rivers, which he, one of the most enthusiastic of 
boatmen, did so much to encourage and foster. 

Mailed, te any address, postage paid, on receipt of price by 
the pniblisJier. 

J. G. CUPPLES, 250 Boylston St., 
BOSTON. 



NEW POETRY. 



A Poet's Last Songs. Poems by the late Henry 
Bernard Carpenter, with introduction by James Jeffrey 
Roche, and portrait. i5mo, unique binding, $1.50 net. 
This little volume is all that remains to us of the many- 
gifted man who came to Boston a few years ago, a stranger and 
unheralded, and took his place among her best poets and 
orators by the right divine of genius. 

Letter and Spirit. By A. M. Richards. 

By the wife of the celebrated American artist, William T. 
Richards. Psychological and devotional in character, 
and taking a high rank in American poetry. Square i2mo, 
unique binding, ^1.50. 

No common, thoughtless verse-maker could produce, in 
this most difficult form of the sonnet, such thoughtful and 
exalted religious sentiments. — Phila. Press. 

Letter and Spirit is a bQok to be studied and treasured. — 
Boston Advertiser. -^ 

An admirable command o\ er the difficulties of the sonnet is 
shown. — Gazette, Boston. 

Margaret and the Singer's Story. By Effie 

Douglass Putnam. Second Edition. i6mo, white cloth, 
$1.25. 

Graceful verses in the style of Miss Proctor, by one of 
the same faith : namely, a Roman Catholic. 

In Divers Tones, By Herbert Wolcott 

Bowen. i6mo, half yellow satin, white sides, $1.25. 
" Trififes light as a feather, caught in cunning form*." 

Auld Scots Ballads, edited by Robert Ford. 

Uniform with Auld Scots Humor, i vol., 300 pages, i6mOt 
cloth. Net, $!.■]$. Nearly ready. 

Mailed, to any address, postage paid, on receipt 0/ price by 
the pitblisker. 

J. G. CUPPLES, 250 Boylston St., 
BOSTON. 



Important New Books. 



" I consider James R. Nichols, the well-known chemist, one of the coolest 
and V lost scientific investigators in the field of psychical phenomena, and, ai 
the same time, one of the ynost honest. If the world had more earnest thinkers 
of the same kind to co-operate with him, the world would ^nd out something 
of value." — Joseph Cook. 

Works by the late Dr. James R- Nichols. 
WHENCE? WHAT? WHERE? A VIEW OF THE ORIGIN, 

NATURE, AND DESTINY OF MAN. By James R. Nichols. 

With portrait of the author. i2mo. Cloth, gilt top. $1.25. Eleventh 

edition, revised. 
" No one can take up the book without feeling tlie inclination to read further , 
and to ponder on the all-important subjects which it presents. Though it is not 
a religious book in the accepted sense of the "word, it is a book which calls for 
the exercise of the religious nature, and which in diffusing 7nany sensible ideas 
luill do good." — Philadelphia Press. 

FIRESIDE SCIENCE: Popular Scientific Essays. i2mo. Cloth. ^1.50. 
These essays have been an endless source of instruction and interest to all 
that have read them, while, to those who approach the mysteries of Nature 
with an inquiring and reverent spirit, they will be of great assistance in aid- 
ing the comprehension of the technical works on chemistry and physics. 
Since Faraday delivered his well-known lectures, there has been nothing to 
compare with the present v.'ork in tracing the action of the immutable laws of 
Nature in processes of every-day occurrence. 

CHEMISTRY OF THE FARM AND THE SEA, with many other 
familiar Chemical Essays. i6mo. Cloth. $1.25. 
This work, though perhaps not of so wide an interest to the average reader, 
is of the greatest value to the thoughtful and practical farmer. Not the least 
of Dr. Nichols' talents was his deep insight into and wonderful grasp of agri- 
cultural chemistry, and many men to-day can bear witness to the value of his 
advice respecting soils and fertilizers. In this volume will be found the gist 
of a series of lectures and addresses delivered before the various agricultural 
communities of New England and elsewhere, which abound with helpful sug- 
gestions and solid facts. 

THE POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. Austin P. Nichols, Editor; 
W. J. RoLFE, Associate Editor. Formerly Boston Journal of Chemistry. 
Founded by the late James R. Nichols, M.D., in 186S, is issued monthly, 
and is designed to be a journal of Useful Knowledge for all classes of 
readers. 
It is now in its Twenty-third year, and has become the most popular scientific 
journal published in the world. 

Terms. — One Dollar per year, in advance. Subscriptions may begin at any 
time. Back numbers supplied when desired. 

Make all drafts, money orders, etc., for this paper, payable to the Popular 
Science News Co., Boston, Mass. 

J, G. Cupples . 'BOSTON, 



htporiant New Books. 




AUNT NABBY: HER RAMBi_£8, 

HER ADVENTURES, AND 

HER NOTIONS. 

With characteristic illustrations and vijf' 
nettes. i2mo. pp. 3 141 xii. 
Paper, 50 cents. Cloth, $1.00. 



" Delightful drollery." 



-Pi/oi. 



" Highly amusing.' 



— Boston Herald, 



^^ SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED AND IMPROVED. 

o o o 

000 

SRIGHT ORIOmALITY, SPRIGHTLINESS, AND KEEN 
OBSERVATION. 

A BUNDLE OF LETTERS FROM OVER THE SEA. 

By Louise B. Robinson. 

12B10. pp. 320. Cloth, elegant, $2.00. 

" The authoress of A Bundle of Letters from over the Sea has pra. 
Sed a bock unlike any other. It is original, bright, entertaining, and show» 
Aat an open-eyed, independent American woman can see." 

— Press. 



/.-» — . ^-. Ptiblishers, ...>...^_^.. 

, G. Cuttles Co. Booksellers, BOSTON. 

^^ Printers, 



Important New 'Boohs. 



A REMARKABLE NOVEL. 

HIERO-SALEM: THE VISION OF PEACE, By E. L. MAiiOK 
I vol. With illustrations. Large square i2mo. Uniaue cloth bindingi 
bevelled boards. 
The vi-riter, evidently an earnest believer in the immortality of the spiritual 
ego, treats in this work of the endeavor made by a man deeply versed in all 
lore that treats of the universality of the immaterial world, and the possibility 
in this life of the partial removal of the sensual barriers whiih separate us 
from it, to raise the standard of physical and intellectual man by the establish- 
ment of a new race founded at the outset by careful selection of two individuals. 
Many subjects of much interest to many thinkers now, are introduced as an in- 
tegral part of the narrative, — the doctrine of re-incarnation, the beliefs of 
Esoteric Buddhism, even the occult knowledge acquired by the Kabbalists. 
The idea, however, that shines through all is that behind these mere glimmer- 
ings of light, there is the splendor of the truth itself, of which these are but the 
reflections vouchsafed to the earnest studies and strivings of man — a deeper 
truth which this book endeavors to express. It is a book to be ranked in the 
same class with "' Consuelo." 

BV DR. BROWN-SEQUARD. 

" THE ELIXIR OF LIFE." Dr. Brown-Sequard's own account of his 

famous alleged remedy for debility and old age, Dr. Variot's experiments, 

and contemporaneous comments of the profession and the press, with 

sketch of Dr Brown-Sequard's life, and portrait. Edited by Newell 

Dunbar, i vol. Square i6mo. Cloth. $1.00 

At a time when all reading classes are interested, either through the medical 

or secular press, in the above subject, it is remarkable to notice the amount of 

ignorance and misapprehension that exists regarding what this remedy really is, 

its method of applicasion, and the results which have been attained. While 

some would claim for it all the virtue suggested by the name by \\'hich it is 

popularly known, others, at the other extreme, would almost refuse to give 

credence to the evidence of experiments ; this little book has, therefore, 

been compiled to give the gist of the opinions of all classes, placing within 

reach of all, in a handy and condensed form, all facts of interest connected 

with the subject. 

ECHOES FROM CAPE'ANN; a book of Poems and Memorial Tokens, 
by Maria J. Dodge, i vol. i2mo. Handsomely bound in cloth, bev- 
elled boards, gilt edges. ^r.50. 
Charming verses ; narrative, descriptive, and devotional, touched here and 
there with a lighter strain, of especial interest to all who reside in or are 
acquainted with the home of Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Lucy Larcom. 

A DIRECTORY OF THE CHARITABLE AND BENEFICENT 
ORGANIZATIONS OF BOSTON, ETC. Prepared for the Aaso- 
ciated Charities, i vol., 196 pp. :6mo. Cloth, ^i.oo. 

/ Q. Cupples BOSTON, 



1 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



mm 



■",<'' -if'/. |V«'fl('< 









^i!^&iJiS^»1#^il^-fe^&% 




029 726 016 9 





